Fifteen charges under the federal Fisheries Act have been laid against Imperial Metals Corp. more than a decade after a tailings pond collapsed the Mount Polley mine, spilling more than 20 million cubic metres of waste water into B.C. Interior waterways.
A statement from the B.C. Conservation Officer Service issued Tuesday says it worked with the Department of Fisheries and Environment and Climate Change Canada to investigate possible contraventions of the act.
“These agencies have been working together as the Mount Polley Integration Investigation Task Force,” the service says.
It says both federal and B.C.’s prosecution services have confirmed the charges by direct indictment.
The collapse of the dam at the gold and copper mine is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in provincial history.
A report from an independent expert panel released in 2015 concluded the key reason for the dam’s failure was the design of the dam.
It said the engineers didn’t take into account the complexity of the geological environment in relation to the dam embankment foundation.
It says engineers failed to recognize that the dam was “susceptible to undrained failure” when subject to the stresses associated with the embankment.
In 2022, Engineers and Geoscientists B.C., the provincial regulatory and licensing body, fined two former project engineers a combined $226,500 while a third was temporarily suspended and ordered to complete additional training.
The service says Mount Polley Mining Corp. and Wood Canada Ltd. face the same charges and all three companies are due to make a court appearance on Dec. 18.
Imperial Metals says in a statement the company received the indictment this week and as the matter is before the courts it won’t be making further comment.