EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA — Alberta and national conservation groups welcome a decision by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) requesting Cardinal River Coals Ltd. to provide information on all potential environmental impacts of their revised proposal for the Cheviot coal mine and not just the industrial haulroad the company has applied for.

“This is a very welcome step toward getting full public disclosure of all the impacts and a public hearing,” says Dianne Pachal of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).

“CRC now wants a larger area for the mine, but would mine less than half the coal and with far less employment than it previously committed to,” notes Pachal. “This calls the Joint Review Panel’s previous conclusion into question. We believe it’s now even clearer than before that the destruction of this nationally significant wildland and the harm to Jasper National Park and area residents would outweigh the mine’s benefits.”

In a nine-page letter, the EUB details the information it wants from CRC, including an assessment of the health risks, specifically regarding selenium and particulate matter (e.g. coal dust). This past August, CRC submitted their application based on a completely different development plan compared to that reviewed by previous federal-provincial hearings. A coalition of regional, provincial and national conservation groups maintains the new proposal is even more invasive than the last, which did not envision the newly proposed haulroad – a wide, noisy, dangerous route cutting along the heart of McLeod River headwaters.

The EUB has asked CRC to provide information on the economic and commercial viability of their new proposal. They’ve also asked for an explanation of why CRC has not proposed to reopen their Gregg River mine, which abuts their Luscar mine. The previous Joint Review Panel had recommended approving Cheviot as it then believed the economic benefits would outweigh the significant environmental harm that would result.

Cheviot is a massive open-pit mine that is proposed for southwest of Hinton, Alberta, adjacent to Jasper National Park, high in the Rocky Mountains. The conservation coalition and an association representing Cadomin residents had each independently asked the federal and provincial governments to require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and hold public hearings on the new mine proposal. The federal government is still awaiting information from the company before it decides on requiring an EIA. Both governments are still deciding whether they’ll call public hearings.

The conservation coalition includes naturalist and author Ben Gadd, the Jasper Environmental Association, Alberta Wilderness Association, Environmental Resource Centre of Alberta, Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, Sierra Club-Prairie Chapter, Toxics Watch Society, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), Canadian Nature Federation and Mining Watch Canada. Since the mid 1970’s, a number of these organization have proposed a park for the area.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

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