The Klabona Keepers, a group of Tahltan elders, have blockaded two roads to the mine since the Mount Polley spill, citing concerns about the same thing happening at the tailings pond at Red Chris.

Minister of Mines Bill Bennett announced Aug. 13 that operations, scheduled to start this fall, would be delayed until the Tahltan Central Council could review an independent study of the impoundment.

Meanwhile, Neskonlith Indian Band is trying to evict Imperial from the Ruddock Creek Mine, a lead and zinc property under construction near the headwaters of the Adams River in southeastern British Columbia, fearing a similar spill.

“Neskonlith Indian Band cannot permit any mining development especially in these Sacred Headwaters that will contaminate the water or destroy our salmon habitat,” Chief Judy Wilson said in a statement.

The tribe also says it has not signed any agreements with Imperial or the government consenting to the mine because of lack of environmental assessments, she says. “We will continue working until they are out of the watershed,” she adds. “We did not consent to them being in our watershed.

The concern is for the fish and the impact on the water “that’s affected all the way to the ocean,” she explains, pointing out that “Quesnel Lake is one of the largest lakes in British Columbia.”

Imperial Metals faces a $1 million fine for the spill, which one observer called unsatisfactory. It’s “not even close to adequate, given the scale of the damage,” says Lori Pittinger, senior Africa campaigner for International Rivers, an advocacy organization based in Berkeley, Calif. “The dam failure poured enough toxic mud to cover New York’s Central Park into local rivers and lakes, polluting First Nations peoples’ food chain and harming their local livelihoods for years to come.

“We won’t know the long-term effects for possibly decades.”