New rules mean heavy costs to monitor mine effluent

Under the terms of the Municipal-Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA), mines will be required to monitor for more than 200 distinct contaminants by the end of 1989.

Ron Connell, chief assayer at Placer Dome’s (TSE) Dome mine in South Porcupine, says the company has already spent more than $200,000 for new, sophisticated monitoring equipment.

“We are currently monitoring at eight separate stations for weak acid, dissociable cyanide, total cyanide, Ph, total alkalinity, total hardnes s, total suspended solids, volatile and involatile suspended solids, total dissolved solids, solids, ammonia as nitrogen, copper, nickel, zinc, iron, lead, conductivity, sulphate, sulphur, arsenic, phenol, thiocyanate and biological oxygen demand,” says Connell, “and we are also doing rainbow trout toxicity tests.”

That list of contaminant checks pales in comparison with the more than 200 contaminants that will have to be monitored when MISA comes into effect.

At Giant Yellowknife Mines,(TSE) manager Peter Rowlandson says the company will likely spend $500,000 or more during the first year of the MISA program.

“A lot of our material enters the Porcupine River system after it has been treated,” he says. “Under MISA, we will certainly be doing a lot more sampling and a lot more analyzing. We are looking now at setting up a special analytical lab to monitor contaminants.”

As for the $500,000, these are not one-time costs, stressed Rowlandson. That figure represents the cost for the first year of the program — and Rowlandson said he has seen no sign of assistance from the provincial government.

Connell said the Dome mine will monitor for a full year.

“At one point, the government will take high and low readings from within the seven Ontario mining sectors, and draw a line between the highest and lowest levels. They will use that line as a cut-off point for contaminants like cyanides,” he said.

Connell doesn’t know when MISA will take effect, but he has heard July 1 and Aug 1 as two possible dates.

In any event, mines will be given a 5-month lead-in period in order to purchase new monitoring equipment and train personnel.

“We started upgrading our equipment two years ago,” Connell said. “We have just purchased new equipment capable of analyzing for 71 different elements. It cost over $100,000. We have also gone to digital standardized Ph metres. So far, we have spent more than $200,000 in upgrading our equipment.”

Dome discharges its waste water into the No 6 tailings dam, the same dam that breached two years ago and spilled thousands of gallons of effluent into the Porcupine River.

Since that time, the entire dam has been rebuilt, with a 16-ft increase in dam height.

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