Editorial: About that Environmental Assessment Office decision
By Sara Golling
In Rossland, there is joy for some, and consternation for others in the decision of the Environmental Assessment Office: there will be no Environmental Assessment of the West High Yield (WHY) proposal for an open-pit magnesium mine on Record Ridge.
Both the joy and the consternation may be premature; as Alex MacLennan, the author of the decision not to require an assessment, pointed out in his 5-page reasons,
“A decision to decline to designate a project as reviewable does not authorize the project to advance to construction and operations, as the project would continue to be subject to permitting or authorizations’ processes appropriate for the type of project or activity and must first receive the necessary authorizations to proceed.”
In other words, WHY must still obtain the long-sought-after permit before it can go ahead. This project has been in the works since 2003, with accompanying publicity in investors’ magazines, news publications, and – of course – the WHY website. Check out this 2009 article here. It includes an interview with Frank Marasco, CEO of WHY.
There are still, to the best of my knowledge, issues that WHY would have to resolve before a permit should be forthcoming.
One of those issues is the safety of the Old Cascade Highway as a route for ore trucks to transport ore, and return for more, sharing the narrow, winding dirt road with logging trucks, recreationists accessing the Seven Summits Trail, and residents of Big Sheep Creek commuting for work and shopping. The mountainside it traverses is steep, so making the road wider would be only partially successful as well as very expensive. An alternate route could perhaps be built, but it would have to pass through private property. WHY would have to pay compensation to the owner, if the owner was willing, as well as the costs of building the alternate road.
Another issue that has not, as far as I know, been resolved is WHY’s access to water for the operation.
And there are the multiple other factors to be considered by the decision-maker. Just check out the materials put together by the Save Record Ridge Action Committee for a fairly complete list.
Meanwhile, as bits of news circulate about the application, WHY stock prices fluctuate; some people suspect that’s the whole point of the exercise – that it’s a “pump & dump” scheme – getting a bit of encouraging news out inflates the stock; then the value subsides again, and stock market players make money (or not) on those fluctuations.
As money is made and lost, many of us here in Rossland anxiously await a final decision about that permit.
