A controversial open-pit coal mine near Jasper National Park is back on track, in a new guise that environmental groups say will do greater ecological damage than the original mine plan.
After fierce opposition by environmentalists that resulted in a protracted court battle, Cardinal River Coals Ltd. received provincial and federal government approval for the Cheviot mine in 2001 – seven years after the project was first proposed.
However, the mine has been on hold ever since because of its $250-million price tag and depressed international prices for metallurgical coal.
Now Cardinal River has applied to provincial energy regulators for a cheaper option that would still locate the mining operation at the Cheviot site. The original mine would ultimately be 23 kilometres long and 3.5 kilometres wide.
Under the new option, however, raw coal from the Cheviot mining operation would be hauled by truck through a mountain valley and processed at the Luscar Ltd. mine near Hinton – a nearly depleted coal mine that was scheduled to be shut down at the end of this year.
“Essentially the mining, which is the bulk of the activity, will be the same at the Cheviot site,” says Fred Munn, Cardinal River’s project manager.
Being able to use the existing coal-processing facilities at the Luscar mine gives the Cheviot mine’s joint venture owners, Luscar and CONSOL Energy Canada Ltd., another option that is “significantly cheaper” than the original $250-million plan, Munn says.
But a coalition of national and Alberta environmental groups wants the provincial government and Ottawa to reject Cardinal River’s application to construct a private road for hauling coal from the Cheviot mine to the Luscar mine processing plant.
Failing an outright rejection of the plan, the groups are calling for a full-scale environmental impact assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
“Cardinal River Coals now wants a larger area for the (Cheviot) mine, but would mine less than half the coal and with far less employment than it previously committed to,” says Dianne Pachal of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS).
Cardinal River’s new proposal turns Cheviot into a satellite mining operation of the Luscar mine, with no construction of a stand-alone mine or jobs at the Cheviot site in coal processing, maintenance or support services, Pachal says. “The economic benefit (of the original Cheviot plan) is cut at least in half now.”
The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) has asked Cardinal River to provide detailed information on the potential and cumulative impacts of all components of its new proposal.
In a nine-page letter, the EUB is seeking information on the economic and commercial viability of the new option, as well as an assessment of potential health risks.
Cardinal River’s revised plan would reduce the Cheviot mine’s production from 3.25 million tonnes a year of metallurgical coal to 2.1 million tonnes annually, to match the capacity of the existing Luscar processing plant. Cheviot’s coal would replace that from the Luscar mining operation, which would be phased out.
In the original mine proposal, a new rail line would have been built to transport processed coal from the Cheviot mining site for shipment to international customers.
Environmental groups argue that the proposed new gravel haul road, located roughly parallel to the Jasper National Park boundary, would pose an even greater barrier to wildlife movement, and ready access for poachers, in the Macleod River Valley.
In places where the narrow valley permits, the road would be a double lane with a 32- to 46-metre-wide road surface, says Pachal. Round-the-clock hauling means a truck will pass a given point every six to 15 minutes for the mine’s anticipated 20-year life, she adds.
The new road would run past the hamlet of Cadomin, a former coal-mining town that now has about 60 permanent residents and 100 seasonal residents. Marlin Fisher, head of the Cadomin Environmental Protection Association, says many residents are worried about the road’s impacts, including loss of hamlet land, noise, dust and pollution of local waterways.
But some residents also work at the Luscar mine or for Cardinal River, so they’d like to see some version of the Cheviot mine proceed because of the job possibilities, Fisher says.
Cardinal River’s Munn says the 10-kilometre haul road would follow the same corridor as the railway in the original mine application.
The original Cheviot mine hearings examined the environmental impacts in this corridor, so there’s no need for another assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), Munn maintains.
“With the design we’re currently proposing, there are no federal ‘triggers’ and, therefore, no need to re-institute a federal review.”
Environmental groups argue that Cardinal River, leading up to its application for the original Cheviot mine, had ruled out the alternative of developing a satellite mine because of technical, environmental and social reasons.
“Therefore, the CEAA review did not address that satellite mine alternative for which approval is now being sought,” the groups contend.
The EUB notes that the haul road and an existing public road “will essentially be side-by-side for much of the route . . .,” separated by one- to two-metre-high concrete barriers that could impede movement by wildlife.
Alberta Environment Minister Lorne Taylor, in a letter to Edmonton lawyer Jennifer Klimek, who is representing the environmental coalition, has rejected the group’s request to order Cardinal River to do an environmental impact assessment.
“I am satisfied that the existing regulatory processes can effectively and efficiently provide for public consultation and the collection of all necessary information to properly assess this application,” Taylor says.
Federal Environment Minister David Anderson says the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is reviewing the new proposal to see whether Ottawa should order an environmental impact study.
A decision isn’t expected until February at the earliest.
