Grizzly Bear. Karvonen Films, WCWC File photo
Cheviot Mine – A Wilderness Disaster
The Cheviot Mine is a recently approved open pit coal mine, located just one kilometer from Jasper National Park in Alberta in the center of the proposed Mountain Wildland Park in the ecologically rich eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The mine proposal was submitted by a consortium of mining interests including Teck Cominco and Fording Coal, who have joined forces under a new name; Elk Valley Coal.
The Cheviot mine was first proposed in 1995 and, although approved, was never developed due to poor market conditions. The Alberta Energy Commission (AEC) has consistently pushed this proposal forward despite condemnation from the United Nations and the Canadian federal government for failing to conduct a full environmental review under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The controversial mine proposal was repackaged and resubmitted in spring 2004 with several new and environmentally destructive components. Appeals to the proposal have been restricted by Alberta’s archaic appeal process where appellants must demonstrate private property right infringement or negative effects on livelihood in order to appeal.
Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club of Canada, and others including the Western Canada Wilderness Committee have led the fight to stop the Cheviot Mine. Ben Gadd, an author of the most popular book on the natural history of the Canadian Rockies and a local guide outfitter in the area, was granted intervenor status and appealed the provincial permits to proceed with the mine. The appeal was to the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board. His appeal was partially successful in so far as a limited environmental review now is required, but only for the haul road, not the mine itself. The appeals board did not grant a full hearing of the project because the Alberta Energy Commission, of which the appeals board is a subset, already ruled in favour of the mine in the 1990’s. The case made by opponents that this new mine proposal warranted new consideration for environmental review was discounted by the Alberta Energy Commission. Other federal and international level government objections to the project were also discounted, as was a full environmental review.
The mine should not proceed further due to its proximity to Jasper National Park and its location within the existing Mountain Wildland Park proposal. Regardless of previous mine configuration proposals that were accepted by the Alberta government, the new mine is significantly different in configuration and warrants a new environmental determination. The new mine configuration includes many of the previous areas but now it emphasizes the McLeod River Valley – home to several endangered and vulnerable species – to a greater extent than did previous proposals.
The mine is also of concern due to its regional impact on endangered grizzly bears. Only 685 grizzly bears remain in Alberta according to previous testimony by the Canadian Wildlife Service. The mine is forecasted to have a devastating effect on grizzly bears residing in Jasper National Park and in its vicinity. A new access road that is proposed for the mine will enable hunters and poachers easier access to grizzlies that live in this nearly road-less area and also to those bears which wander outside park boundaries. Elk, moose, bighorn sheep, wolf, and cougar would also be negatively affected by the mine proposal. At previous hearings, experts from the Canadian Wildlife Service testified that the areas wildlife species and diversity on song birds is “a high as it gets in North America.”
It is not too late to demand a full environmental review under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The Alberta Government is clearly deficient in their legal federal environmental requirements. Specifically, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board issued its approval permit for the new mine without a federal environmental assessment under the Fisheries Act.
