Project process inadequate

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This article was published 10/01/2024 (661 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Carol Sanders, in her article on the Wanipigow sand mine (Hollow Water sand mine snagged by controversy at separate, unrelated project, Jan. 4) reports only statements from the proponent, Canadian Premium Sand (CPS). CPS claims to have community approval for the project.

A Wanipigow community-based group, Camp Morning Star (CMS), has opposed the project since its inception. The concerns of CMS include the increased risk of injury and death from sand trucks on the narrow road from Pine Falls to Wanipigow, exposure of residents and workers to silica dust that causes silicosis and cancer, and water pollution from acid drainage.

The licence for the sand mine, now under appeal, requires that CPS submit a Traffic Impact Study to Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure. This study has not been released on the public project registry. Manitoba Hydro has not approved the CPS truck crossing of the hydro dam over the Winnipeg River at Pine Falls. On Nov. 10, 2022, CPS submitted a notice of alteration (NOA) report on the project public registry for the mining of silica sand for solar glass manufacturing. An updated air quality modelling study by AECOM reported that airborne limits for silica dust in nearby communities would not be exceeded.

The altered location of the mining for solar glass closer to the communities and inclusion sand stockpiles, which were disallowed by the original licence, counter-intuitively resulted in a decrease in the modelled airborne levels of silica fines.

The updated modelling did not use measured data specific to the Wanipigow sand. Rather, inapplicable literature values were used. No measured field or wind tunnel tests of air dispersion from Wanipigow sand were done to confirm the modelling results. No worker protection measures such as personnel silica dust monitors, protective clothing and respiratory protection are specified in the NOA or in the revised licence for the project.

No required community air monitoring for silica dust is specified in the revised licence. Unconfirmed, proponent-funded modelling does not justify inadequate protection and monitoring for exposure to deadly airborne silica dust.

The 2014 NI43-101 Wanipigow technical report, required by the stock exchange for investor protection, included laboratory results from acid base accounting tests of a composite Wanipigow sand sample.

The laboratory results clearly demonstrate that the Wanipigow sand, including sand from the solar glass area, is acid-generating. The laboratory results were supplemented with backscatter electron micrograph pictures of the Wanipigow sand that showed deposits of iron sulphides (marcasite and pyrite) on the sand. Iron sulphides, when exposed to air and moisture, form acid that in turn leeches heavy metals.

Red and purple discharge into Lake Winnipeg from the nearby abandoned silica sand quarry on Black Island gives further evidence of the acid drainage. I documented the evidence for acid drainage of the Wanipigow sand in my public comments on the project registry in April, 2019. The evidence was not adequately addressed.

The original Wanipigow licence recognized the acid drainage capacity for shale that covers much of the Wanipigow deposit. The licence specifies remedial measures for burial of excavated shale in clay-lined trenches.

The NOA of November 2022 did not mention the 2014 technical results, but a geochemist for AECOM recommended that comprehensive acid drainage testing be carried out in the area for solar glass. CPS, instead, proposes to conduct acid drainage testing during the extraction activities. Federal procedures require comprehensive acid drainage testing in the planning stage so that mitigation strategies can be determined beforehand, if possible. The revised licence does not specify requirements for acid drainage testing of the Wanipigow sand.

CPS had committed to hydrogeological testing that would determine the drawdown of the water table during extraction activities. Creation of a larger unsaturated zone from extraction drawdown could allow air from excavation faces to penetrate to acid generating shale layers adjacent to the solar glass area. Acid drainage into the groundwater from the shale would result. CPS has not conducted the hydrogeological study.

CPS claims the publicity concerning political interference in the Vivian Sand Extraction Project is adversely affecting the Wanipigow project, which has no connection to the Vivian project.

The connection to the Vivian project is the politicized, inadequate provincial approval process, which is biased toward development. This inadequate process allows the severe environmental, health and safety risks of the Wanipigow project, documented above, to remain unaddressed.

Dennis LeNeveu, M.Sc., was a participant in the Vivian Sand Clean Environment Commission hearing.