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Canada’s federal nuclear regulator held a public meeting in Saskatoon about uranium mines, including closed and decommissioned uranium mines in northeastern Ontario. In their overview presentation Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) staff omitted any discussion of the closed mines in Elliot Lake or the Agnew Lake mine, which were issues of high concern to intervenors including the Township of Nairn and Hyman and the northeastern Ontario environmental group Northwatch.
The Township of Nairn and Hyman retained a technical expert and provided a written intervention outlining their community’s growing concerns regarding the environmental and public health risks associated with the Agnew Lake Tailings Management Area (TMA). The Township noted that the 2023 Annual Report prepared by the Ministry of Mines exposes critical deficiencies in the Agnew Lake TMA’s environmental monitoring and contamination levels. Groundwater, surface water, and soil samples collected during the monitoring period indicate widespread exceedances of contaminants and heavy metals.
“Nothing could be more important to Nairn & Hyman than our drinking water and natural resources. The Agnew Lake Tailings Management Area (ALTMA) needs to be adequately managed to safeguard our immediate neighbours, waterways, and the surrounding environment”, commented Mayor Amy Mazey.
“We have profound concerns for the lack of site-specific details contained in this report. For instance, the report fails to acknowledge contaminant exceedances in the surface water, ground water and sediment adjacent to the site that include uranium, radium, arsenic and cyanide. We are hopeful that the CNSC will take these concerns seriously and act appropriately by expertly managing ALTMA.”
Northwatch outlined similar concerns in their written intervention, including general comments on the CNSC regulatory report, which it found to be lacking detail and sufficient supporting information and rationale for conclusions, and noted that most concerns Northwatch and its technical experts had identified during previous reviews did not appear to have been resolved, and many concerns have continued or perhaps worsened during the current reporting period, particularly at the Agnew Lake site. Northwatch also commented on negative trends in the decommissioned mines in the Elliot Lake area, including rising concentrations of radium in water discharge and sediments and poor performance in meeting water quality benchmarks.
The Township of Nairn and Hyman and Northwatch both expressed strong concerns about a proposal to transfer large low-level radioactive wastes from just outside North Bay to deposit on the tailings management area at the Agnew Lake Mine.
During a 2015 inspection, CNSC staff found sections of the tailings were exposed where the tailings management area cover had degraded. The response proposed by the Ministry of Mines, who is licensed to manage the Agnew Lake Mine, was to transfer 20,000 m3 of niobium bearing material classified as naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from the former Beaucage Mine near North Bay and place it on the Agnew Lake tailings. Northwatch objected in its 2018 written intervention on the grounds of there having been insufficient review of the potential for negative effects of adding the niobium wastes to the Agnew Lake tailings. At a public meeting in Nairn Centre on September 11th of this year, repairs to the tailings cover had still not been done and no information on the potential cumulative effects of adding the niobium waste to the uranium tailings was presented by staff from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission or the Ontario Ministry of Mines.
Neither the Township of Nairn and Hyman or Northwatch were permitted to present at the Commission meeting underway today in Saskatoon. CNSC staff presented the regulatory report in the morning session but included no mention of the closed mines in northeastern Ontario or the several significant concerns raised by the Township of Nairn and Hyman or Northwatch in their written interventions.
The public meeting was streamed live at https://cnsc.isilive.ca/ and will continue throughout the day. The Commission has the option of asking questions of CNSC staff about the written interventions during the afternoon session.
The Township of Nairn and Hyman and the Township of Baldwin will be holding a Joint Public Meeting on February 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the community centre in Nairn Centre to provide updates to residents on the review undertaken by the Township of Nairn and Hyman and various meeting outcomes, including this public meeting of the CNSC.
Source: Northwatch and the Township of Township of Nairn and Hyman
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