Mount Polley Mine, the Canadian operation that spilled 4.5 billion gallons of water and 10.3 million cu yd of waste after a massive tailings storage pond breach in 2014, has won government permission to pump treated effluent into nearby Quesnel Lake.
The British Columbia Ministry of Environment approved on April 7 the company’s long-term waste water management plan that allows pumping as much as 13.7 million gal daily into Quesnel Lake, a glacial body that is a salmon spawning area and is the water source for the town of Likely, B.C.