Findings from Obed mine spill to be presented to community

Information garnered from the Sherritt International’s Obed Mountain Coal Mine breach by scientist Bruce Maclean, of Maclean Environmental Consulting, is scheduled to be presented to Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations community members on Dec. 10. Maclean met with representatives from ACFN and Mikisew Cree Nation on Nov. 21 in Edmonton to discuss his findings. Initially, ACFN had Maclean look at the data of the spill contents provided by Sherritt and the government. Since then, Maclean has been working with monitoring teams on both ACFN and MCN. The breach at Sherritt International’s Obed Mountain Coal Mine from a pit 30 km east of Hinton occurred Oct. 31 and released approximately 670 million litres of contaminated water into two tributaries leading to the Athabasca River. The mine has since been sold to Westmoreland Coal Company.