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16 Jan, 4 tweets, 3 min read
One wonders if Alberta's Energy Regulator has any expertise about the costs of "restoring" open pit coal mines in mountain environments, or the past records of the companies being licensed to mine in this province. 1/n #Alberta #ableg @ReclaimAlberta @Pembina
What research has the AER done to establish that existing regs, incl. the MSFP requirements, are adequate? 2/n @OKWesternWheel @ABlawg @AER_news @SPhillipsAB
Because the record of open pit coal mining in the US, Australia, Turkey, and elsewhere really isn't reassuring. I don't see any evidence that mountains & their unique ecosystems can be put back together the way they were before being blasted apart. 3/n @CorbLund @paulbrandt
Just look at this mess: independentaustralia.net/business/busin…
"Revenue" is effectively cancelled out by the environmental costs. As this article asks: Who is stuck with the bill? 4/4

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More from @LaurieAdkin

Laurie Adkin Profile picture
17 Jan
Benga/Riversdale says: "The company has developed wildlife and fish monitoring programs to sustain those populations, and also has a plan in place to safely and effectively manage selenium." 1/n
calgaryherald.com/news/no-free-f…
@ABWilderness @cpawssab
"Monitoring" does not protect fish from selenium poisoning. Benga promises a lot of measures, most of which amount to experimentation or monitoring. The stakes are too high to approve another open pit coal mine on this basis. 2/n
Why do I say this? Because I read the submissions of the scientists to the JRP. You should read these, too, before you decide to take the proponents' promises at face value. That's what @CorbLund did. That's why he said "I'm 100% opposed" to coal mining on the eastern slopes. 3/n
Read 12 tweets
Laurie Adkin Profile picture
16 Jan
Jason Nixon's reassurances are not credible. Look at the evidence, Albertans, and not at the pretty words. First, Alberta does not have a "robust" environmental regulatory system. Is there one environmental lawyer in Canada who would agree with this? 1/n #abpoli
One conservation biologist? One landscape ecologist? One conservation association? One environmental policy expert? One authority on the ecology of the eastern slopes? 2/n @Ablawg @ABWilderness @cpaws
Do you want to ask some of the landowners who have abandoned well sites on their properties? Indigenous communities living downstream of the oilsands? Or maybe have a look at the Cheviot mine site? 3/n
Read 18 tweets
Laurie Adkin Profile picture
16 Jan
This is a very informative and accessible (to non-scientists) explanation of how selenium gets into water, food, and animals, and how the Grassy Mountain coal mine would be likely to affect selenium levels in the Oldman River and throughout the watershed. 1/n
#Alberta #aboli
"[T]he top three sources of man-made selenium contamination worldwide in order of greatest to least are:
1. Mining
2. Irrigation
3. Feedlots
The Oldman River and South Saskatchewan watersheds already have large feedlots and supply irrigation." 2/n
"If additional pressures from a new coal mine were added to these watersheds, this area would be unique in the world as having all three top contributors to selenium contamination." 3/n
@JonathanWNV @HMcPhersonMP @SPhillipsAB @row1960 @DrewPAnderson @Pembina @cpawssab
Read 5 tweets
Laurie Adkin Profile picture
14 Jan
Albertans have loudly, clearly, and in their thousands demanded that coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies be stopped and prohibited.1/n @CBCFletch @DrewPAnderson @CanadianPress @globeandmail @JonathanWNV @HMcPhersonMP @ryanjespersen
@JenCrosby @660NEWS @RachelNotley
More than 16,000 have signed a petition to the federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada.
petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/De…
(The petition closes Friday. Sign now!) 2/n
Nearly 2,000 have written comments to the Joint Review Panel, with about 98 per cent of these opposing the Benga coal strip mine and other mining in the Rockies.
iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluation…
(Opportunity for comments also closes this Friday.) 3/n
Read 9 tweets
Laurie Adkin Profile picture
13 Jan
About 1,000 Albertans have written to the Joint Review Panel that will make a recommendation to the federal minister of ECCC on whether or not to approve the proposed open pit coal mine on Grassy Mountain. 1/n @350Canada @RachelNotley @CBCCanada @JustinTrudeau @globeandmail
It is worth reading through these comments, which you can find here: iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluation… (You can also add your own comment, as a Canadian citizen.) 2/n
Many of the statements are very moving. Albertans feel very passionately about protecting this place, this land, this watershed, the trout, the pines, from the devastating effects of coal mining. 3/n
Read 28 tweets
Laurie Adkin Profile picture
13 Jan
"Two-thirds of Canada's irrigated agriculture relies on waters from the Eastern Slopes, including the project region."
(Kevin van Tighem, landscape ecologist & conservation biologist, comment to the JRP for the Grassy Mtn coal mine project) 1/n
#WaterNotCoal @JonathanWNV
"Water is so scarce there has been a moratorium on new water licenses in the watershed since 2006." 2/n
@UAlbertaREES @UofA_EAS @ualbertaScience @usaskArtSci @WatershSentinel @battleriver @Oldmanwatershed @SouthSaskRiver @NiitsitapiWater
Van Tighem lucidly sets out reason after reason why the coal mine on Grassy Mtn should NOT be approved. Read his statement here: iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluation…
3/n
Read 6 tweets

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