Send your letter to protect the Nashwaak Watershed from Sisson mine waste

Subject

Your Message (feel free to edit, and please sign your name at the bottom)
I am writing to express my deep concern about the Sisson Partnership’s proposal to dump mining waste into portions of Bird Brook and a tributary of the West Branch of Napadogan Brook, both fish-bearing waters in the pristine Nashwaak watershed. Please take the following into serious consideration when reviewing Sisson Partnership’s proposed amendments to the Metal Mining and Diamond Effluent Regulations of the Fisheries Act. I am joined by many New Brunswickers who are concerned that the Sisson Partnership did not conduct a rigorous scientific assessment of alternative technologies for managing the mine’s tailings and waste. There is no evidence that Best Available Technologies, recommended by the Mount Polley Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Panel following the devastating tailings pond breach in British Columbia in 2014, were thoroughly investigated. Instead, the residents of this region are left with an old-fashioned tailings facility that will negatively impact our property values and our quality of life. In addition, in the name of profit for the proponent, New Brunswickers are being asked to accept a less than optimal “centerline” tailing dam design instead of the safer “downstream” design. Sisson Partnership has failed to provide to the public a detailed “Reclamation and Water Treatment” plan as required by its 2015 EIA Conditions of Approval. Without this level of detail, New Brunswickers and our government can have no confidence that the Sisson Partnership has the financial wherewithal to pay for the environmental protection measures required to ensure the continued ecological health of our rivers, now and in the future. The Nashwaak watershed has supported fisheries for species such as Atlantic salmon and brook trout for many generations of Settler and First Nations communities. The proposed Sisson mine, in the sensitive headwaters of the river, now threatens the future of those fishing opportunities and the benefits they hold. The Sisson Partnership claims that the amount of fish habitat the mine and tailings pond will impact is limited to the footprint of the project site itself, and slightly beyond. This does not take into account the threats posed by the mine downstream to the Nashwaak watershed, the lower Saint John River, and beyond to the Bay of Fundy. Because the assessment of impacted habitat is very limited, the proposed habitat compensation plan to offset the mine’s impact is severely inadequate. It is not enough to fix two minor barriers to fish passage to compensate for the impact of a mine whose tailings threaten the entire watershed downstream. I trust that DFO and ECCC recognize this reality and will require the proponent to explore more significant options for offsetting impacts to fisheries productivity, beginning with sufficient water treatment of the effluent leaving the tailings pond during the mines operative years, and in perpetuity following mine closure. New Brunswick is blessed with natural resources, most importantly our waters, and we need to build an economy that puts water protection at the forefront. At best, the jobs promised over the 27-year life of the mine are not worth the permanent risks the mine poses to the Nashwaak watershed, the lower Saint John River, and to downstream communities such as Stanley, Taymouth, Durham Bridge, Marysville, Fredericton, and down to Saint John. In closing, I ask that you deny Sisson Partnership's proposed amendments to the Metal Mining and Diamond Effluent Regulations of the Fisheries Act on the basis of the concerns presented in this letter. Thank you. Sincerely,