A proposed ordinance aimed at limiting storage of hazardous liquids within one mile of waterways will not meet its intended goal of regulating a mine tailings dam, according to the borough attorney and an environmental consultant.
On June 26, borough manager Debra Schnabel, public facilities director Brad Ryan, assembly member Will Prisciandaro, borough attorney Brooks Chandler and environmental consultant Enrique Fernandez discussed the usefulness of the ordinance.
They reported that state and federal code exempt “waste rock from a mining operation” from the definition of hazardous materials, which the proposed ordinance was intended to regulate.
“If the Haines Borough is attempting to identify tailings or waste rock as hazardous waste, this ordinance would not achieve that goal,” Schnabel said. “I think we just have to step back and find other ways to address our concerns for mining waste rock.”
Prisciandaro, who introduced the ordinance in April, said it was intended to regulate potential mines in Haines from a catastrophic tailings dam breach, like those recently in British Columbia and Brazil.
“This is a way to put a regulation in place that will help protect our environment here while still allowing industry,” he said.
In their preliminary economic assessment, Vancouver-based Constantine Metal Resources has proposed a dry-stack tailings method for its potential mine about 35 miles north of Haines. The company is continuing its exploratory work of the copper, zinc, silver and gold deposit, known as the Palmer Project.
“Even with dry stack technology, there will be seepage, and the possibility of contamination without a system that recycles or treats the drain water,” Schnabel wrote in a memo to staff July 1. “Staff will direct its attention to Constantine to make provisions for a seepage control system of dry stacked material; this may be addressed in a new, more specified regulation.”
Schnabel will present staff’s research to the borough assembly on July 18.