Plans for open-pit coal mine a bad idea
By Letter to the Editor on August 26, 2020.
Jason Kenney has lost his mind! Work has already begun on an open-pit coal mine west of Lethbridge in the headwaters of the Oldman River! You know, the Oldman River where we (100,000-plus citizens) get our drinking and irrigation water from!
As you know we live in a very arid part of the province. I have seen many late summers where our river is running low, warm and not so clean.
Demands on this river are high and it still needs to run through the rest of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Already, the snowpack and ice pack in the mountains are not what they used to be. Now an open-pit coal mine will be using large amounts of this same water in processing its coal!
And open-pit coal mines are notorious for leaching selenium (highly toxic!), nitrates, ammonia, phosphorus and hydrogen sulfide into stream, rivers and groundwater.
It does not take a rocket scientist to know that water runs downhill. Well, when there is water!
Jason Kenney and his government have done all of this without consultation and by lifting a 44-year coal development policy under the cover of a pandemic!
I have written letters to everyone I can think of.
Everyone in Lethbridge and the surrounding area should write a letter, too:
– Intergovernmental Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Hon. Chrystia Freeland – chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca
– Environment and Climate Change Minister. Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson – jonathan.wilkinson@parl.gc.ca
– Minister of Natural Resources. Hon. Seamus O’Regan – Seamus.Oregan@parl.gc.ca
– Minister of Canadian Heritage. Stephen Guilbeault – Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca
Don’t bother writing to the UCP. They aren’t listening!
Fearfully yours,
Waneeta Fisher
Lethbridge
19-18
Quite correct in every respect.The “tip of the proverbial iceberg”.