Stephen Harper Allowing More Toxic Waste to Poison Our Water

I had posted before on Stephen Harper using a loophole to allow mining companies to dump their toxic waste into our lakes and rivers.

Well apparently, the water was still too clean for his liking, so he has given the Brazilian company, Vale, the right to spew more junk into the beautiful waters around Newfoundland.

A coalition of environmental groups is fighting to set a national precedent by stopping Brazilian mining giant Vale from dumping 400,000 tonnes a year of toxic tailings into a Newfoundland lake known for its prize-winning trout.

“Sandy Pond is a wonderful, beautiful lake and all aquatic life is going to be annihilated,” said Meera Karunananthan, national water campaigner for the Council of Canadians and a member of the newly-created Sandy Pond Alliance. “The authorities are allowing the company to use our pristine water as one big garbage dump.”

Vale plans to use the lake for waste from a nickel processing plant, set to open in 2013. It’s located near Long Harbour on the Avalon Peninsula in southeastern Newfoundland, about an hour’s drive from St. John’s. The environmental alliance recently filed a legal challenge in federal court to what they see as a loophole in the Fisheries Act. It allows Canadian lakes to be reclassified as “tailings impoundment areas.” Once a body of water is reclassified, a company can’t be sued for dumping.

Look on the bright side. I guess we can always build more "fake lakes". Goodbye Stephen Harper.