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July 19, 2015, Alberta – Environmental risk remains high due to the past Conservative dynasty’s neglect of their duties to protect the environment. Plenty of work exists for a new, competent, and inspired government to assure Albertans of a sustainable future. On Halloween 2013, a holding pond at Obed mine burst and released over 670 million litres of sludge and waste water into Apetowan creek, and from there into the Athabasca River. Scientists and Academics challenge the Government of Alberta to perform their due diligence and press charges on Sheritt International, then owners of the Obed mine.
Carl Hunt: biologist “The Bloom Lake mine spill in Quebec (2011) netted a $7.5 million fine, and the mine spill at Mt Polley in B.C. (August 2014) has already been publically investigated but what has happened in Alberta? Why is the Obed Mine and coal industry treated so differently in Alberta? Does the coal industry in Alberta just get a clean-up order and warning for the destruction of ‘Threatened’ fish species and habitat in foothills trout streams?”
Brittany Verbeek, Conservation Specialist, Alberta Wilderness Association “We call on the provincial and federal governments to hold themselves accountable for ensuring safe and healthy watersheds. An important part of this process is charging and penalizing companies like Sheritt who have compromised these values in the Athabasca watershed.”
Fraser Thomson, Lawyer with EcoJustice Canada “The Obed spill has devastated ecosystem health and profoundly affected local communities and First Nations. In cases like this, where spill impacts are so severe, charges and stiff fines are necessary. Polluters will only get the message that accidents like this are unacceptable when regulators take swift and decisive action to hold them to account.”
Makere Stewart Harawira, PhD, Indigenous, Environmental and Global Studies, University of Alberta “The abject failure of the Alberta Government to act in an accountable manner in response to the Obed mine spill in October 2013 is thrown into sharp relief by the BC government’s response to the mine spill at Mt Polley. Compared to other coal ash spills, this was large. Yet despite a government investigation, Sherritt International, then owners of the Obed mine, have received no charges and no penalty. The lack of response by the Alberta government is unconscionable by any standards and most certainly from the viewpoint of Aboriginal communities whose customary life style, livelihoods and identities are intrinsically connected to the Athabasca river. It is to be hoped that the new government will act swiftly to exact a meaningful penalty.”