Remind me please, where in BC did they find their BSE cow? I think it was the lower mainland - but I don't remember.
Interesting articles from "The Tyee" an online news paper.
Link: http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/30/RanchRevolt/
Link: http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/01/04/Falkoski/
Here's the first part of this article on Joe Falkoski of BC. The article is 9 pages long and very worth reading. Mr. Falkoski lost cattle from various exposures to the mine tailings and activities. Who will be next?
Where was the BC - BSE cow found again?
Here's some more from the article:
You'll have to read the whole article to get "the rest of the story"......
This is a co-inciding article at the same link]
This is a very sad situation indeed. And your community could be next.... what mines and minerals do you have under your ranch-lands?
Interesting articles from "The Tyee" an online news paper.
Link: http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/30/RanchRevolt/
Link: http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/01/04/Falkoski/
Here's the first part of this article on Joe Falkoski of BC. The article is 9 pages long and very worth reading. Mr. Falkoski lost cattle from various exposures to the mine tailings and activities. Who will be next?
Joe Falkoski says he's being forced by bad laws to allow toxic mining on his land. A special report.
By Kendyl Salcito
Published: January 4, 2007
TheTyee.ca
What do you do if you are a rancher told by a company -- and then the courts -- that there is nothing you can do to stop your rangeland from being dug up and further strewn with radiation?
If you are Joe Falkoski, you refuse to take no for an answer.
The Kettle Valley rancher fears mining for barite in radioactive soil on his property is a threat to his land, his livestock and the health of people in his community. He lost his latest court battle in September, but vows not to give up a fight that concerns many citizens across B.C.'s southern interior.
Falkoski believes the court ruling and provincial mining laws essentially require him to go into partnership with a venture-capital mining company that has already damaged his property and failed to repair it.
The dispute is just one of many to arise since the provincial government relaxed policies and regulations to promote the development of subsurface mineral, oil and gas claims on otherwise private land.
Zena Capital Corp. believes it is entitled to enter the land, since the Mines Ministry's Mediation and Arbitration Board gave it the go-ahead in February of this year.
Falkoski rejected the arbitration board's ruling, insisting that he was given no opportunity to air his concerns in either mediation or arbitration hearings.
He wanted no responsibility for any of the mining activities taking place on his property, so he rejected settlement money awarded following the hearing. "They can do what they want, but I won't have any part of it. I won't accept their money -- I refuse to be held complicit in their liability and responsibility."
Falkoski, 80, is fuming about the way the provincial government has dealt with his dilemma. Drawn out discussions and tribunal hearings through the mines ministry have failed to protect his now radioactive and barren rangeland.
Falkoski believes his experience with government officials reflects a Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum that is unable to effectively manage the industry it governs.
What's more, he believes the regulations fail to fairly protect the rights of private landowners and the public's health.
It's a complex story that now involves citizens throughout the Kettle, Similkameen and Okanagan valleys who dread the growing exploration and mining in an area rich with radioactive minerals.
Where was the BC - BSE cow found again?
Here's some more from the article:
Radiation present
At that point MacLean had done no radiation testing at all, even though the Kettle River area is known for its high presence of radon, a radioactive gas linked to lung cancer, emphysema and other respiratory diseases. The dirt is laced with uranium and thorium, which release radon at elevated rates compared to most places, about five times the exposure recommended by Health Canada. Falkoski suspected that debris from the work had even higher radiation levels than the surrounding ground. He asked MacLean to test -- a request that MacLean denies fulfilling.
When MacLean started shaving off the tops of knolls without asking, Falkoski says, he lost patience and turned to the Mines Ministry for help.
Meanwhile, the hazardous minerals piled higher and the six-inch-wide, 60-foot-deep holes throughout Falkoski's cattle range remained unreclaimed. Spring rains filled sumps that MacLean left unfilled and cattle drank from them.
Then, Falkoski says, three cattle fell ill. They all died the next winter. "I've never had an animal get sick and die on my land, except after these drill cuttings were left out over the winter," he said. The cuttings that MacLean had left on the property contained silica sediment and uranium -- both dangerous when they contaminate drinking water. Two more cattle were crippled when they fell into uncovered drill holes. When they failed to recover, they were both shot.
You'll have to read the whole article to get "the rest of the story"......
This is a co-inciding article at the same link]
.Digging in Against Dust, Radiation
Citizens press officials to halt mine.
Rancher Joe Falkoski's fight to prevent mining on his land has support from some equally determined neighbours. The Committee for a Clean Kettle Valley is alarmed by the prospect of digging up an area that the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has noted for its high background radiation.
Tests at Kettle Valley schools (most recently published in 1999) showed a concentration of radon (a radioactive gas) second highest for 365 schools surveyed throughout the province. The barite mine would be less than a kilometre from Rock Creek's elementary school.
Citizens also worry because the ore is 20 per cent silica, which, when ground down, creates toxic dust.
"Ore that contains more than 10 per cent...silica presents special hazards in mining, transportation and milling," industrial ventilation engineer Ed Chessor stated in a letter to the Mines Ministry. Chessor noted the dust can cause silicosis, a degenerative lung disease.
Rock Creek locals collected 140 signatures (in a community with just 300 mailboxes) on a petition demanding a halt to the mining. The petition was sent to Zena Capitol Corp., the firm wanting to mine Falkoski's land, as well as the mines, environment, and forestry ministries.
The concern over mining and radioactivity extends beyond Rock Creek now that uranium prospecting is picking up again in B.C.
In 1980, then-premier Bill Bennett issued a seven-year moratorium on uranium mining, citing health risks, as uranium claims began popping up throughout the Okanagan and Kettle River valleys. By the time the moratorium ended in 1987, uranium had dropped in value and the push to find it in B.C. seemed dead.
However, uranium prices are now higher than they were at their previous peak in the 1970s -- up 150 per cent in the past year alone.
In places where uranium is present, mining other ores also can release radiation (as on the Falkoski land). And the province now allows radiation levels related to mining 15 times higher than in the days of the moratorium, according to the mining industry's 2003 Health Safety and Reclamation codebook.
In a town meeting held by Zena and attended by mines officials in October of 2004, Rock Creek residents demanded more extensive radiation tests. Mining inspector Reid said: "We barely have enough money for our ministry to attend meetings." Reid said his ministry lacks the resources to test for hazards before mines begin full production. Those responsibilities, he said, are left to miners on an honour system.
In 2002, the B.C. Liberal government eliminated 106 Mines Ministry jobs and empowered mining officials, rather than civil servants, to oversee environmental permitting.
Critics note the province and other levels of government often end up paying millions to repair sites torn up and polluted by mining.
"Monitoring remains a huge problem," Sierra Legal Defence Fund lawyer Lara Tessaro told The Tyee. "Small communities faced with giant mine proposals often have very limited timeframes in which to provide public input. They don't even have, under provincial legislation, the automatic right to provide public input."
-- Kendyl Salcito
Kendyl Salcito is a Vancouver-based journalist who has covered mining and other issues for The Tyee
This is a very sad situation indeed. And your community could be next.... what mines and minerals do you have under your ranch-lands?