All politicians involved in the Eastern Slopes coal mining issue will be reviled in 30 years
By Letter to the Editor on April 23, 2021.
Editor: Open letter to Minister Nixon and MLA Neudorf:
It is impossible to create new open-pit coalmines in the Eastern Slopes without using water that currently flows out of the mountains and across southern Alberta.
You are making clever and deceitful use of definitions to make it appear that you are following your own regulations – “the letter of the law”. In fact, you are making major changes. The South Saskatchewan River Basin has been closed to new water licence applications since 2007. You have promised Benga the water they require and yet, as you said in a recent letter to me, “We have not altered anything regarding water allocations from the Oldman River Basin and further, proposed changes that were discussed with stakeholders would not increase water set aside for industrial use.”
Benga is requesting 150 acre feet per year from the existing Industrial Purposes allocation – no change to the allocation, just a change to the user/recipient. Benga wants another 130 acre feet, to be obtained by diversion from the Crowsnest River – no change in allocation here!
Benga is currently taking another 203 acre feet, diversion (not reallocation) from York Creek. (All info from the UofC Law Faculty “Water for Coal Developments”.) For those of us who are used to litres, this total is over 600 million litres of water – water which will no longer be flowing into Southern Alberta once these mines are operational and regardless of your clever language.
Premier Peter Lougheed is revered today, over 30 years since he last served as Premier. In less than 30 years from today, my bet is that the names of all those involved in this unspeakable tragedy will be reviled.
Sincerely
Leslie Lavers
Lethbridge
-1
My friends and I all consider ourselves to be true conservatives and are furious by what a farce the Conservative Party of Alberta has become. Those of us who have relatives in other provinces know what a laughing stock Alberta has become. Albertans learned nothing from watching Reformer Danielle Smith walk the floor to join Jim Prentice and get them all defeated.
Now the conservatives are allowing Kenney to do it again. Letting Reformers get control of the conservative parts was just plain stupid.
Instead of trying to build on what our conservative hero Lougheed created for us they are deliberately trying to destroy everything he stood for. Where is the intelligence in that.
Agreed. Former fiscal conservative Premier Peter Lougheed had the better interests of Albertans and Alberta in mind, unlike, the now toxic populist authoritarian Kenney UCP, et al. it is unconscionable as to how the Kenney UCP are catering to these carpetbagging Australian mining companies. They want: cheap land leases (which, already, the Kenney UCP has handed out for pennies on the dollar), lax regulations, low royalties and politicians who cooperate with them. That the Kenney UCP is still allowing destructive coal exploration to go on in/on our eastern slopes is disgustingly unconscionable. In my letters to the Minister of Energy and my MLA I have stated clearly, that we want nothing less than the leases be cancelled and compensated and to completely stop the exploration. Open-pit coal mining would, not, be a financial savior for Alberta, let alone the priceless cost of the destruction and contamination.
A number of us Albertans are getting lawn signs from the “Protect Our Water – Alberta Beyond Coal” campaign.
http://www.albertabeyondcoal.ca
Southern Albertans need to understand that if this open-pit coal mining goes ahead, millions of us who depend on the quantity and quality of our waters is at risk. It sure is a sad paradox when Kenney stands in front of his “Lives and Livelihoods” backdrop to make announcements. By their actions, they could give a rats.