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6 Tuesday June 23 2015 INDUSTRY MINING www.rmwb.ca PUBLIC NOTICE REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF WOOD BUFFALO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND ENHANCEMENT ACT NOTICE OF APPLICATION In accordance with the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has applied to Environment and Parks to renew the waterworks approval for Fort Chipewyan. They obtain their water from Lake Athabasca and utilize three raw water storage reservoirs. Treatment at the plant consists of pre disinfection oxidation with potassium permanganate coagulation flocculation rapid sand dual media filters. Disinfection is with sodium hypochlorite and UV. They will be required to upgrade the treatment facility as per Dr. Smiths recommendation. The upgrade will include installation of a SCADA system new complete treatment trains added to the existing trains which will include UV disinfection. The operation is located at NW of Section 08 Township 112 Range 7 West of the 4th Meridian. Pursuant to section 73 of the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act any person who is directly affected by this operation may submit a written statement of concern regarding this application. Failure to file a statement of concern may affect the right to file a Notice of Appeal with the Environmental Appeals Board. Such a statement of concern must be submitted to Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Regulatory Approvals Center Main Floor 9820 - 106 Street Edmonton Alberta TSK 2J6 Fax 780-422-0154 Email esrd.epeaapplicationsgov.ab.ca within 30 days of the date of this notice. Please quote Application No. 009-680 when submitting a statement of concern in regards to the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act application. NOTE Any statement filed regarding this application are public records which are accessible by the public. Copies of the application and additional information can be obtained from Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Attention Shanta Chakrovortty 9909 Franklin Avenue Fort McMurray AB T9H 2K4 Telephone 780-793-1081 Mining group blames regulator for pulled NWT drilling application Husky withdraws application to drill for fracking sand in NWT By MEAGAN WOHLBERG Mining advocates in the Northwest Ter- ritories say the environmental assessment process is to blame for Husky Oils decision to withdraw its application to drill for the sand used in hydraulic fracturing along the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. Husky backed out of the review process just days before Aboriginal groups were scheduled to make their concerns with the project known at public hearings on June 18 in Behchoko and June 23-24 in Yellowknife. In a brief letter to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board last Tuesday the company said it would be with- drawing its application to drill for silica near Whitebeach Point 50 km west of Yellowknife but gave no reasons why. Tom Hoefer executive director of the NWT Nunavut Chamber of Mines said the review process is likely at the root of their decision. Wehavebeenwarninggovernmentsagainst referring small projects to environmental as- sessmentforsometimeevenbeforetheHusky sand project Hoefer said. It is unusual and unnecessary from an environmental perspec- tiveforjurisdictionstotakethesesmallprojects to such a detailed review for approval. What it does is to force small projects into more costly and complex regulatory processes costly for not just the proponent but also for regulators government and communities. HuskysproposalknownastheChedabucto Mineral Exploration Project sought a ve- year land use permit to drill approximately 200 holes for silica a ne quartz-rich sand used as a proppant in the hydraulic fractur- ing process. The application was made last December and referred to environmental assessment by the review board in February after Aborigi- nal groups made it clear the project would be the cause of public concern. At the time Husky representatives indi- cated their next moves were uncertain and would be dependent on the process. Last weeks decision comes just weeks after the company also conrmed it would not be pursuing further shale oil exploration in the Sahtu region this winter. Hoefer said the lack of certainty for ex- ploration companies is hurting the economy overall since the odds of nding a resource extraction project are one in a thousand. Iliketosaymineralexplorationislikebingo. Theoddsareagainstyoutowinhesaid.Thatis whysmartbingoplayersplaymanymanycards at once to increase the odds of winning. That is also why we need to have many many explora- tionprojectsunderwayifwearetoincreasethe oddsofoneofthembecomingamine.Butchas- ingawayinvestmentbeforeitevenhasachance to nd anything like the simple Husky sand project will hurt us in the long run. First Nations opposed project Both the Tlicho Government and Yellow- knives Dene whose traditional territory in- cludes the area of Whitebeach Point had submitted letters of concern to the review board rejecting Huskys proposal. IntheTlichosplannedhearingpresentation the government said it had not been consulted priortoHuskybeingissuedthemineralclaims fortheWhitebeachPointareainDecember2011 and had asked for the area to be designated a protected area in its land use plan based on its ecological and cultural importance. The Tlicho Government recommends the rejection of this mineral exploration activity given that there is not broad based accep- tance of exploration or mining in the area the presentation concluded. SimilarlytheYellowknivesDenesaidthearea is ecologically sensitive and has both present andhistoricalsignicanceasaharvestingarea. This Whitebeach Point and area is of sig- nicance to the Yellowknives Dene and they have ancestors buried in the area and the traditional use of hunting trapping and sh- ing rights will not be given up for that area states comments from the Yellowknives Dene written to the board in May. The NWT chapter of the Council of Cana- dians called Huskys decision a victory for the area that has historical cultural envi- ronmental and recreational value. This is no place for a mine particularly a mine that aside from being damaging in its ownrightwould support the environmentally destructive practice of horizontal hydraulic fracturing said co-chair Peter Redvers. Its time that industry and public governments recognize that the continued exploitation and use of non-renewable energy sources is not socially environmentally or economically sustainable. Redvers said the chapter supports the Tli- cho Governments proposal of creating a pro- tected area in the North Arm. son g YELLOWKNIFE GREAT SLAVE LAKE WHITEBEACH POINT