The Anchorage Daily News editorial by RWB’s Brian Lynch is about the KSM mine proposal targeting Unuk and Nass headwaters in the southern Alaska – British Columbia transboundary region. KSM would be one of the largest and most technically daunting mine projects ever attempted anywhere. For years we have been pointing out that this Canadian proposal – mostly about gold as opposed to the critical minerals it touts – has not been getting the rigorous environmental scrutiny by provincial regulators that it warrants.
As long as a development project like KSM is deemed not yet “substantially started”, its Environmental Certificate must be updated every ten years in the interest of keeping planning, studies, and reviews upon which the Certificate is based relatively current. A sound policy it would seem to British Columbia’s credit.
Unfortunately the provincial Environmental Assessment Office recently declared that the project is “substantially started” when in fact there is almost no legitimate basis for that determination. Seabridge, a junior mining company seeking investors, is for sure getting a boost from the regulatory powers that be insofar as it will no longer have to worry about updating the key permit for its KSM prospect, even as better ways to handle toxic tailings come to light, potential cumulative impacts in headwaters multiply, or as on site glaciers melt with accelerating climate change. This is another example of British Columbia demonstrating insufficient care about safeguarding downstream waters and fish habitat or heeding the interests of Indigenous communities.
The good news is, again, KSM is in reality a long way from started. We’ll keep doing what we can to watchdog KSM and bring attention to the risks it poses.
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