--Maybe some registered experts need to go back to school for a refresher course.
Found this on another site............
Provincial government sheds scientists, but needs more
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Page B06
By Scott McCannell
Last week, just a day after the Mount Polley tailings pond disaster, The Vancouver Sun reported that B.C.'s Mines Minister Bill Bennett told a news conference in Williams Lake that he was "losing sleep" over the potential state of 20 similar ponds in the province.
"This gives us about the best reason a person could have to really take a step back. Every Canadian has to be concerned about this," Bennett was quoted as saying.
We at the Professional Employees Association are also losing sleep over what happened at Mount Polley and what could happen elsewhere in the province. In fact, it gives us nightmares because we believe the provincial government is increasing the risk of other tailings pond collapses by systematically cutting back on the number of experts and scientists it employs to inspect them and ensure they are safe.
Since 2004, the Ministry of Energy and Mines has decreased the number of engineers and geologists it employs by 21 per cent. The inspection of tailings ponds is one of the many duties these professionals carry out on behalf of the people of British Columbia.
Minister Bennett says there has been no decrease in the number of inspections of tailings ponds in the past five years (once per year for structural integrity, unless there are complaints or specific issues), but perhaps the inspection schedule itself is the problem. News reports since the incident quote consultants and members of local communities as being concerned about the safety of the pond, but there's no indication that the government sent its engineers to investigate. Bennett said at his Williams Lake media conference that there was no warning or cause for concern.
But it stands to reason that if you cut back on professional staff whose job is to inspect and monitor facilities like tailings ponds, the risk to public safety and the environment increases.
For more than a decade the government has been reducing Licensed Science Officers right across the board. We warned about this in a report in March this year (endangeredexperts. ca/report/PEA_Report.pdf). We showed that between 2009 and 2014 the number of experts and scientists in government dropped by 15 per cent, and the trend is downward.
Our study echoed concerns that have been raised in the past by B.C.'s auditor general. In a February 2012 report, the AG found that the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations lacked the capacity to gather important information about forest management.
Only a small portion of B.C.'s forests was ground surveyed to the extent needed to inform decision-making and assist in timber supply reviews, according to the AG's report. This impacted decisions made on harvesting timber, reforestation and the overall health of the forest resource.
These are important issues because natural resources are the backbone of the B.C. economy and neglecting their management and monitoring is a threat to the environment and to the economic well-being of all British Columbians.
Licensed science officers are professionally trained and accredited experts and scientists including foresters, engineers, agrologists, geoscientists, veterinarians, psychologists, physiotherapists and pharmacists. They provide the provincial government with advice, guidance, research, monitoring and review services to help ensure the efficient and effective management, utilization and oversight of B.C.'s natural resources, infrastructure, food and water resources and some aspects of health care services.
They are often the firstline stewards of our natural resources and have oversight of the safety of infrastructure - including tailings ponds. We believe there are now not enough science officers working for the province to adequately look after the interests of British Columbians - and the situation is getting worse.
The cutbacks mean that much of the work these experts and scientists were doing has been reduced, discontinued or contracted out to the private sector. We currently face the prospect of an LNG development boom in B.C. While these projects have the potential to significantly benefit British Columbians, they could become major liabilities if oversight and stewardship are left almost exclusively to the proponents and their consultants.
Now more than ever B.C. needs licensed science officers to ensure that the LNG sector is developed in a way that provides the maximum possible protection to the environment and the people of the province. We should be hiring more experts, not getting rid of them.
Scott McCannell is executive director of the Professional Employees Association (pea.org), a labour union representing 2,500 professionals in British Columbia, including approximately 1,150 government-licensed science officers working for the province.
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Topic: Copper/gold mine tailings pond failure contaminates the Quesnel lake watershed (Read 47529 times)