COALMONT — An environmental review has found Coalmont Energy Corp extremely underestimated how much coal slurry spilled from the Basin Mine emergency tailing pond into the Tulameen River at the end of August.
“Our mine experts are pegging it about 30 cubic meters which is about 6,000 gallons” said Coalmont Media Spokesman, Keith Meldrum in a Global Okanagan interview on August 26th.
Now, a report released Monday said “after a more detailed review of events, it has been determined that the initial estimate of the quantity of spilled material is no more than 13,000 gallons.”
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In the days following the spill after an emergency shutdown of the Basin Mine coal processing plant, the coal tailings were found more than 30 km downstream from the point of entry at the bottom of Collins Gulch, just north of the village of Coalmont, BC. The spill turned the Tulameen River jet black for days.
More than two weeks after a slurry spill, the Coalmont Energy Corp submitted its next steps to the Ministry of Environment Sunday.
The Ministry forced the company to submit an action plan on how Coalmont Energy should proceed post spill. Triton Environmental Consultants is the lead environmental team at the spill site and has collected numerous samples and date from Collin’s Gulch, The Tulameen River, Similkameen River and surrounding environment, according to a press release Monday from Coalmont Energy Corp.
While the details of the plan aren’t public yet, the final recommendations from environmental consultants were submitted to the Ministry Sunday.
“Upon approval of a finalized Action Plan, Coalmont Energy Corp. will release the recommended clean-up actions as provided by the technical experts” said Meldrum.
There’s no timeline on when the Ministry’s review of the action plan will be complete.
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