A public meeting was held in Telkwa to discuss what potential Selenium could do to local aquatic life.
On Monday, close to 80 people attended the information meeting to hear how the containment is related to the Telkwa coal mine project.
Bulkley Valley Stewardship Committee member, Jay Gilden claims he learned coal mine containments are hard to control.
“Given the fact that this is supposed to be near the confluence of the Bulkley and Telkwa and that the contaminants of the coal mine operations, if they reach the rivers will have a bad effect on the fish, is something everyone that many people around here should be concerned with.”
Gilden says his concerns relate to the salmon population and a lack project environmental assessment in place.
“Allegiance Coal, the proponent is planning on not just one pit but multiple pits; they are artificially keeping the total amount of coal that they are expecting to mine below the threshold for a full environmental assessment, even if they themselves admit it will go above that threshold eventually.”
Allegiance Coal is an Australian company whose flagship mining project is the Telkwa coal project, however no official plans have been made as of yet.
The meeting was organized by the What Matters in Our Valley Group.