Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon
Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon
Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon
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This creates uncertainty and delays in<br />
project development and may translate<br />
into higher development costs and<br />
increased potential liabilities to<br />
government.<br />
It would be beneficial to create a<br />
favourable environment to facilitate<br />
finding solutions before environmental<br />
problems in the <strong>Yukon</strong> arise. This<br />
approach was used for the Mine<br />
<strong>Environment</strong> Neutral Drainage (MEND)<br />
program. The MEND program was a<br />
cooperative effort between Canadian<br />
mining companies and provincial and<br />
federal departments. It was designed to<br />
develop and apply new technologies to<br />
prevent and control acid mine drainage.<br />
It is estimated that the liability due to<br />
acidic drainage has decreased by at<br />
least $400 million due to a research<br />
investment of $17.5 million over the<br />
eight year life of the program. The<br />
MEND program was completed in<br />
December 1997; however, in light of its<br />
success, a post-MEND initiative funded<br />
by NRCan and the Mining Association<br />
of Canada emphasizing technology<br />
transfer has commenced.<br />
The Mining <strong>Environment</strong> Research<br />
Group (MERG) is a cooperative<br />
working group of government<br />
agencies, mining companies, <strong>Yukon</strong><br />
First Nations and non-government<br />
organizations for the promotion of<br />
research into mining and<br />
environmental issues in the <strong>Yukon</strong>.<br />
Participants bring their resources and<br />
knowledge to work cooperatively on<br />
mining environmental issues and<br />
projects in an advisory capacity.<br />
PROGRESS &CHALLENGES<br />
Progress since 1995<br />
■ Viceroy Minerals Corporation won<br />
the 1999 Robert E. Leckie Award<br />
for its ongoing reclamation work at<br />
the Brewery Creek gold mine near<br />
Dawson City. In the placer mining<br />
category, Tic Exploration cap-<br />
tured the award for its reclamation<br />
practices on Gladstone Creek.<br />
■ Pamicon Developments Ltd<br />
undertook the clean up of the<br />
Fairchild property at Bonnet<br />
Plume on its own initiative. At the<br />
Copper Point camp, all garbage<br />
was picked up by hand and the<br />
disturbed area was re-seeded.<br />
■ The Mine <strong>Environment</strong> Neutral<br />
Drainage (MEND) Program was<br />
designed to apply new technologies<br />
to prevent and control mine contamination<br />
through mine drainage.<br />
<strong>Ch</strong>allenges<br />
■ Reclamation of abandoned<br />
hardrock mines.<br />
■ Achieving oil and gas development<br />
with minimal environmental<br />
impacts, particularly in the area<br />
of carbon dioxide and sulphur<br />
dioxide emissions.<br />
■ The clean up of contaminants in<br />
old exploration sites and mines<br />
across the <strong>Yukon</strong>.<br />
3.5 Solid Waste<br />
Not so long ago, one main word was<br />
used to describe the items that people<br />
no longer wanted. Everything from old<br />
tires to empty paint cans was called<br />
garbage and chucked into the local<br />
dump. Today we are much more<br />
sophisticated about the subject of<br />
garbage, both in how we define it and<br />
how we handle it.<br />
Solid and special waste are two<br />
classifications that we have for garbage<br />
today. There are strict definitions for<br />
each of these terms, and we have<br />
come a long way in setting regulations<br />
for managing different types of waste.<br />
Unfortunately, we now generate so<br />
much waste, and so many different<br />
types of it, that action to reduce and<br />
manage it is essential.<br />
<strong>Yukon</strong>ers throw out on average almost<br />
two kilograms of trash per day.<br />
This adds up to about 700 kilograms<br />
of waste/person/year. But efforts are<br />
being made at every level to reduce<br />
this amount 1.<br />
There are federal and territorial<br />
objectives to reduce the 1988 volume<br />
of waste by 50 per cent by year 2000.<br />
In 1995, the City of Whitehorse was<br />
diverting 16 per cent of its waste<br />
stream. It has increased that amount to<br />
21 per cent, and started new programs<br />
in 1999 to divert even more waste from<br />
the landfill.<br />
Since the publication of the 1995 State<br />
of the <strong>Environment</strong> Report, several<br />
major initiatives have been introduced<br />
to deal with waste in the territory.<br />
These include:<br />
City of Whitehorse:<br />
■ 1998 Solid Waste Action Plan<br />
<strong>Yukon</strong> government <strong>Environment</strong> Act<br />
Regulations:<br />
■ Beverage Container Regulation<br />
– amended in 1996 and 1998<br />
■ Contaminated Sites Regulations<br />
– January 1997<br />
■ Storage Tanks Regulations<br />
– January 1997<br />
■ Spills Regulations – January 1997<br />
■ Solid Waste Regulations – 2000<br />
All of these initiatives will help both to<br />
reduce waste and manage it more<br />
responsibly. While more progress is still<br />
needed, a brief look at the past shows<br />
how much we have improved already<br />
in some areas.<br />
History of <strong>Yukon</strong> Wastes<br />
Before the Klondike Gold Rush, the<br />
territory did not have a garbage<br />
problem. First Nations had no<br />
dangerous wastes to worry about, and<br />
all of their garbage would have been<br />
organic. The World War Two era is<br />
often seen as the time when garbage,<br />
pollution and special wastes became an<br />
issue in the <strong>Yukon</strong>.<br />
When the Alaska Highway, the Canol<br />
Road and Pipeline, the airports of the<br />
C H A P T E R 3 L A N D ❧ 5 1