‘It’s scary’: Similkameen bands say once-pristine waterways tainted by mine waste

An environmental monitoring station sign stands near Wolfe Creek, downstream from the Copper Mountain Mine’s tailings dam, in sm?lqmíx homelands on Sept. 27, 2024. In 2021, the mine at one point exceeded the legal limit of copper waste discharged from its tailings pond into the creek by more than 4,500 per cent.

Image Credit: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative

December 21, 2024 - 8:00 AM

Facing questions from sm?lqmíx community members about mine contamination in a Similkameen Valley creek, a senior representative for the Copper Mountain Mine insisted she would drink the water herself.

The mine, owned by Hudbay Minerals and Mitsubishi Materials, has been repeatedly fined by the province for polluting nearby waterways; in 2021, its operator at one point exceeded the legal limit of copper waste discharged from its tailings pond into Wolfe Creek by more than 4,500 per cent.

Representatives of Hudbay Minerals attended a private meeting with community members of the Lower Similkameen (LSIB) and Upper Similkameen Indian Bands (USIB) in sm?qmíx homelands in syilx Okanagan territory on July 11.

IndigiNews has obtained an audio recording of the meeting, at which a community member asked a senior Hudbay staffperson whether the water of Wolfe Creek — a tributary of the Similkameen River — is safe to drink or not. Both waterways flow through the mine’s footprint in the Similkameen Valley.

“I’ve heard previously that there have been spills from the mine, there has been leakage,” the community member said. “I haven’t heard about the water quality in Wolfe Creek, is that something you would drink out of now? Because at one time it was drinkable.”

Megan Bonn, Hudbay’s director of sustainable development for the Copper Mountain Mine, replied that there is “extensive monitoring” in the Wolfe Creek watershed and into the Similkameen.

“Those results are showing us that the water quality is good,” Bonn said to the room. “So yes, I would drink the water.”

Sludge floats at the top of Wolfe Creek, downstream from the Copper Mountain Mine’s tailings dam in sm?lqmíx homelands, on Sept. 27, 2024.

Image Credit: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative

Numerous community members say they can no longer safely drink the water or harvest food from the area, after the provincial government repeatedly fined the Copper Mountain Mine operator for violating pollution and discharge laws.

“She said she would drink it? Yeah, well, get your cup. Let’s have a drink,” said cewel’na Leon Louis, a knowledge keeper from LSIB, in a November interview after hearing about Bonn’s comment.

The river’s headwaters originate near the Manning Park area, where Louis said he’s noticed the water is far more pristine than further down river, where the mine releases its tailings discharge.

“We do a ceremony there for kids that are going through rites of passage — praying for the water,” he said. “The land is what feeds us, that’s what takes care of us.”

He accused the mine of “polluting so much” of the vital water system.

“Everything around there is getting polluted,” he said.

cewel’na Leon Louis of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band stands near Spotted Lake (kllilx’w ), located near Osoyoos (sw?iw?s) in syilx Okanagan homelands, on Oct. 27, 2022.

Image Credit: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative

‘I still don’t eat fish out of that water’

During the July 11 joint meeting, LSIB and USIB members spoke of a time where you could harvest fish from the Similkameen River, and drink the water from Wolfe Creek — practices that many have stopped due to safety fears.

IndigiNews is not naming the community members who spoke at the private meeting unless given explicit permission. However, IndigiNews is identifying the Hudbay staff who spoke at the meeting for accountability purposes.

“I still don’t eat fish out of that water. Me and my brother, we supplied our families with fish from that river, and we haven’t since August 1982,” said one community member who spoke at the meeting. “That’s a long time without eating fish from my river.”

In September, IndigiNews observed sludge floating to the top of the waters of Wolfe Creek within the mine’s work site, downstream from the mine’s tailings pond. Along the creek’s route are signs that ask to avoid touching the water, as environmental monitoring is in place.

When IndigiNews asked the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy whether the water at Wolfe Creek is indeed safe to drink, they deflected the question to the Ministry of Health.

But that branch of the government didn’t give a clear answer either, noting that they only monitor public drinking water — such as treated water delivered through taps — and not creek water quality.

Leadership from both LSIB and USIB declined IndigiNews’ requests for an interview, while Hudbay Minerals did not respond.

Madison Terbasket, a member of LSIB who works for Penticton Indian Band’s natural resources department, spoke at the meeting. She said in a later interview with IndigiNews that she remembers a time where her grandfather and his brothers would harvest fish from the Similkameen River.

Terbasket said that her túpa? (great grandmother) also used to drink the water at Wolfe Creek, long before Copper Mountain Mine released their mine waste into the waterway.

Located near “Princeton, B.C.,” on sm?lqmíx homelands in syilx Okanagan territory, the area now known as Copper Mountain Mine has seen mining operations since 1923. Different companies have passed around ownership of the project throughout the last century, with the mine experiencing various intervals of on-and-off activity.

In 2006, Copper Mountain Mining Corporation acquired the project and began mining in 2011 following the construction of new infrastructure.

By the early 2010s, when Terbasket was a teenager, the once-shutdown Copper Mountain Mine had re-opened after a near 15-year-hiatus.

It was around this time when Terbasket said she was told by her family and community to avoid drinking water from the river or eating its fish.

“I know the visible change, at least for me, is the amount of algae or just buildup. It’s this green, sludge over everything — all the rocks, the river bottom,” she said. “Everything is covered. I never remembered it being like that as a child.”

Louis also said that when he was growing up in the valley in the 1970s and 1980s, the waters of the Similkameen River were pristine and clear. He said he used to drink from the Wolfe Creek’s water, and would harvest fish from it.

“When you looked at the rocks, they don’t have that slime,” he said of the Similkameen River.

Now, despite living right next to the river, Louis said he rarely even goes in its waters. The changes to the valley’s waters and land that he has seen in his lifetime have made him “sad as hell.”

“When I give my talks to non-Natives, I tell them, ‘Before you guys came here, we could drink water out of any lake, any river, any creek.’ Now, look at it – it’s scary to drink water now. You have no idea what you’re drinking.”

With the fish not even being safe to eat, he worries about the other animals and livestock that drink from the river and its tributaries.

“When we hunt that deer and kill it, there we see the disease from drinking the water,” he said.

The Similkameen River flowing through the Copper Mountain Mine’s footprint in sm?lqmíx homelands, on Nov. 26, 2024.

Image Credit: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative

Province has issued numerous envionmental fines to mine

The meeting in July was an effort by Hudbay staff to meet face-to-face with sm?qmíx community members and share their plans to expand the mine’s operations by reviving the mine’s old Ingerbelle pit. Separating the Ingerbelle pit from the mine’s main site is the 197-km long Similkameen River.

If approved, it would extend the mine’s current operations by another 14 years, the province’s Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals told IndigiNews. The Ingerbelle pit had been mined from 1972 to 1980, and then from 1995 to 1996.

Before ceasing ownership in 2023, Copper Mountain Mining Corporation “entered into Participation Agreements” with USIB and LSIB in 2019 – the same year that the New Ingerbelle pit extension had been applied for.

sm?qmíx leadership has not yet made a decision on the New Ingerbelle Expansion project. It’s unclear how much revenue the two bands themselves generate from the mining operations.

The proposed New Ingerbelle pit extension would expand the existing Ingerbelle Pit and associated infrastructure by 298 hectares. The open pit mine is already operating at a capacity of processing 45,000 tonnes of minerals per day.

Many community members at the July meeting were worried about how much more damage to the land and water could come from allowing the New Ingerbelle Expansion to go through.

During the meeting, a representative of Reciprocity Research — which is an organization supporting LSIB and USIB with research as they navigate the project’s the application process — said that while the Ingerbelle pit currently does not go below the Similkameen River, the pit itself is about three-times the depth of the deepest part of Osoyoos Lake.

The representative also noted that while the Ingerbelle pit’s area of activity is within the mine’s footprint, there are some parts that overlap with a critical movement corridor for wildlife, which he described as “some of the last, best ungulate habitat in that part of the valley.”

He pointed to the tens of thousands of dollars in environmental fees that were issued to Copper Mountain Mine just this past year.

“There’s comments here about, ‘the water is good.’ The government of B.C. doesn’t seem to think so,” he said.

This year, the provincial Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy issued six fines to Copper Mountain Mine totalling $105,348.

The string of offences, which occurred between 2019-2022, all relate to the mine’s unauthorized seepage and discharge of toxic waste from its tailings pond into the surrounding waterways of the Similkameen River and Wolfe Creek.

One of the fines issued was because the mine failed to immediately notify the ministry for releasing their waste into the waterways.

According to the ministry, in April 2021, the mine exceeded the legal limit of total copper effluent discharged into Wolfe Creek on eight occasions — with the exceedances ranging from 125 to 4,500 per cent over the permit limit. They were fined $24,000 as a result.

The year before, on three occasions in 2020, Copper Mountain Mine exceeded the maximum monthly average limit for nitrate discharge into Wolfe Creek, with the exceedances coming at over 33 to 34 per cent over the permit limit. A $22,722 fine was then issued.

Then, on 16 dates — beginning on April 28 and ending on May 16, 2021 — Copper Mountain discharged more contaminants into Wolfe Creek and exceeded the maximum total copper limit allowed in the creek’s waters. The excesses ranged from six to 100 per cent over the permit limit, and they were fined $11,500 as a result.

They were subsequently fined an additional $1,600 for failing to immediately notify the ministry for eight non-compliance events.

In total, Copper Mountain was fined $59,822 dollars for releasing harmful contaminants into Wolfe Creek, from 2020 to 2021.

“As a result of the copper mining and milling process, a number of contaminants of concern are present in the various known seepage discharges that occur from Copper Mountain Mine into Wolfe Creek,” the ministry wrote in their findings, noting that the contaminants of concern are selenium, sulphate, nitrate, copper, and molybdenum.

An aerial view of the Copper Mountain Mine’s Ingerbelle pit in sm?lqmíx homelands, pictured on Nov. 16, 2024.

Image Credit: Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative

Between December 2019 and April 2020, problems with one of the mine’s tailings dam seepage systems saw the unauthorized discharge of waste into the Similkameen River. The contamination of water happened again in September 2020, according to the province, when the mining company “failed to ensure that there was adequate fuel supply” to maintain the seepage system’s operations.

More unauthorized discharge into the river occurred from January to February 2020. And in November of that year, the system failed again “as result of inadequate design and maintenance, and the unauthorized discharge reoccurred,” the ministry said.

The mine was fined $45,526 as a result of its failings and seepage into the Similkameen River, from 2019 to 2020.

In its findings, the ministry said that the mine “has consistently failed” to ensure that their two seepage systems are “designed, constructed, and maintained as to ensure that there is no discharge to the Similkameen River.”

The ministry added that the “continued and repeated” unauthorized discharges from both of the mine’s seepage systems “has the potential to cause adverse effects in the Similkameen River and has interfered with the ministry’s capacity to protect the environment.”