Feds asked to assess silica sand project

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This article was published 01/10/2020 (1754 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ottawa should scrutinize a proposed silica sand operation near Anola, the Manitoba Liberal Party says.

On Monday, MLA Jon Gerrard, the Liberals’ health and sustainable development critic, shared a five-page letter addressed to Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

In it, Gerrard asks Wilkinson to order an assessment of a plan by a Calgary-based mining company to extract and process silica sand in Vivian, east of Anola.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), whose mandate is to consider “both positive and negative environmental, economic, social, and health impacts of potential projects,” would carry out the assessment.

“The potential for very large cumulative effects is a reason why a federal review of this proposal under the IAAC is so critical,” Gerrard wrote.

CanWhite Sands Corp. has applied for a provincial environment licence that would allow it to extract and process silica sand deposits located 200 feet underground. The finished product would be shipped by rail to markets that could include fracking sites.

In an email, an IAAC spokesperson said the agency “is conducting an analysis and will make a recommendation to the Minister on whether to designate the project under the Impact Assessment Act.”

Gerrard’s letter marked the second time his party has thrown its weight behind grassroots calls for more scrutiny of CanWhite’s proposal.

In August, the Liberals supported Our Line in the Sand, a group of concerned citizens pressing Manitoba’s conservation and climate minister, Sarah Guillemard, to order Clean Environment Commission (CEC) public hearings.

Don Sullivan of What the Frack Manitoba, an online anti-fracking network, was the first to call for a federal review of CanWhite’s plans in an Aug. 9 open letter.

Gerrard said an IAAC assessment could be held in tandem with CEC hearings.

Sullivan also worried acidic discharge from the processing plant would enter the Brokenhead River and Lake Winnipeg watershed, violating aquatic habitat protections in the federal Fisheries Act.

Sullivan also said Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, located downstream from the proposed facility, wasn’t consulted. Gerrard said neither were Metis who live in Ste Rita and Ste Genevieve.

Petitions opposing CanWhite have garnered a combined 1,400 signatures, Gerrard said, and 820 submissions to the province also voiced concerns.

Our Line in the Sand has previously argued that mining activity will contaminate and deplete the Sandilands aquifer that supplies southeastern Manitoba with drinking water, and that processing the sand will expose Vivian residents to harmful silica dust.

The Sandilands aquifer also extends into Minnesota, creating “potential international ramifications,” Gerrard wrote.

CanWhite maintains its “closed loop” processing method uses recycled water and won’t produce tailings ponds or runoff, and said its extraction method will use far less water than critics allege.

Gerrard said Ottawa should consider what will happen if the company’s systems don’t “function as projected.”