The proposed ‘‘Blizzard’’
anium mine, 50 kilometres
utheast of Kelowna, will over its
atively short life produce about
5 million tons of highly radioac-
Ve waste tailings, and about 1,000
ns per week of liquid wastes. The
fanium mining company, Norcen
nergy Resoyrces Ltd., plans to
Ore the toxic wastes in perpetuity
a ‘‘pond’’, backed up behind a

Norcen, a Toronto based com-
y backed by West German
Capital, insists its plan is safe and it
S after the provincial government
) grant an interim license to begin
lining. In November, the company
dused a sensation with the an-
Ouncement that it had already
ened a tentative agreement to sell
nium to South Korea.
t according sto an_ expert
itness before the Bates Royal
OMmission into Uranium Mining
St Friday, interim approval to
Orcen would be ‘‘disastrous’’.
Paul Robinson, a New Mexico
‘Uranium expert and environmental
€ngineer, told the commission that
there are two major problems with
Norcen’s proposed tailings pond.
St, the tailings will remain
active for about 80,000 years,
‘Tequiring constant supervision for
€ entire period. And secondly, the
S which hold tailings ponds
have been known to break, con-
inating surrounding water sup-
a ae soils.

_8.C. is without any detailed

regulations for uranium mining, he
said, and they must be developed
before any company is allowed to
begin mining. ‘‘The job is first to
develop a regulatory framework,
and then deal with individual
operators,’’ he urged.

Robinson was brought to the
Bates commission last week to
testify on the Norcen proposal by
the Environmental Alliance against
Uranium Mining, the coalition of
anti-uranium mining ‘groups in-
tervening in the commission, which
sponsored a press conference Fri-
day following his testimony.

Uranium mining can ‘‘concep-
tually be relatively safe,’’ Robinson
said, but Norcen’s proposed mine
at Blizzard is far from it, Neither
are other uranium mines in North
America safe, he said, as govern-
ment’s and industry are just beginn-
ing to develop systems to deal with
safety problems.

In Norcen’s case, seepage from
the tailings pond would reach Jones
Lake, a mile away, in only 50 years,
he said, terming it a ‘“‘very rapid
and dangerous rate.’’ The company
also plans to drain water from the
lake for the mining operation, caus-
ing additional risks when the water
level in the lake rises again after the
mining operation is finished.

A bigger danger posed is the
pondtself, supported by a dam.
Robinson told the inquiry that the
“zoned embankment’’ dam _ pro-
posed by Norcen is the ‘‘same
general class’ of dam as that used

by the United Nuclear—Chur-
chrock Uranium Mill in New Mex-
ico. The Churchrock dam was
licensed in 1977 and ‘‘was supposed
to have been the best designed dam
in the history of uranium mining,”
he said. But on July 16 this year, the
dam broke, releasing 100 million
gallons of uranium mill tailings.

The break in the dam was patch-
ed in less than an hour, but im-
mense damage was done, as con-
taminated waters spread 75 miles
downstream over New Mexico ter-
ritory inhabited mainly by Navajo
Indians.

Robinson recommended that
regulations governing any uranium
mining in the future require tailings
to be deposited below ground in
geological formations close to the
ones. which the tailings were
originally mined from.

Only adequate geological forma-
tions can be expected to deal with
the problem of radioactivity over
thousands of years, he argued, as
few societies remain intact for more
than several hundred years, and the
life of a uranium mine seldom ex-
ceeds 20 years.

Norcen’s Blizzard claim has

,become the focus of the en-

vironmental impact phase of the
Bates Inquiry, largely because it is
the most detailed proposal for a
uranium mining operation.
Intervenors at. the inquiry were
outraged November 23 when
‘Norcen’s lawyer, Cal Johnson,
matter-of-factly announced that the

Continued from page 1

Debate in the union has centred
around how the little there is can be
“spread around’? so that everyone
volved in.the resource can make a
‘asonable living from the herring
‘Season, which usually begins the
last week of February and continues
‘to March.
_ The union’s herring committee
Proposed a per vessel catch quota to
the union membership at a Dec. 10
Meeting, and, as the Tribune went
0 press, a second membership
_ ‘Meeting was underway to finalize
the union’s position to be presented
to the federal fisheries department.

An alternate suggestion, that of
area licensing, was initially recom-
mended by the fisheries department
Ut was rejected because poor
Stocks in the north would make it
_ “nworkable.
- Hewison added that confining
vessels to certain areas would
“ghettoize”” fishermen and make
Union organizing difficult. The her-
‘Ting committee recommended that
the membership ‘‘reject the concept
Of area licensing.” -

~ The proposal made by the
Fisheries Association, the body
representing the fishing companies,
that one herring licence be issued
‘Or every two vessels, was rejected
Outright by the union.

That plan would ‘“‘leave half the
fleet behind, and thereby decrease

Postage has become exor-

bitant and with age we have
becone much move mili-

tant, so if you do not gel a
Ohiisbnns card, we have
Spent the money through
this ad. Merry Christmas
all you good friends and

Peace in 1980.

iiap iso eo Wied i

- The Tanches

the number of jobs by about half, a
Hewison said.

The current management plan of
a ‘‘vessel pooling system’’ has been
met!.with skepticism by: fishermen
because’ of the problems. of manag-
ing it. Whereas fishermen have had
experience with a per vessel quota

GEORGE HEWISON
fisheries’ mismanagement has
depleted stocks.

system, the pooling system is un-
tried.

According to the fisheries depart-
ment, quotas will be set in areas
where herring stocks are large
enough to warrant fishing. An
unspecified number of boats would
go out to the area, and, ‘‘after
discussion, vessels would go in, one
at a time, until the area quota was
caught.”’

UFAWU seeking quota plan

If the quota is caught before
every vessel goes in, then the pro-
ceeds of the catch are to be divided
amongst all of the vessels, including
the ones that didn’t get a chance to

eset their nets.

Many feel that this system ac-
complishes the same as the com-
panies proposal because it would
cut the number of fishermen active-
ly taking part in the herring season
in half. UFAWU member Jim
Rushton noted that if one boat
fishes and another doesn’t, it is
unlikely that the second boat would
get paid.

The UFAWU issued a_ policy
statement last April expressing its
fear that the herring roe and food
fishery, which it was instrumental in
restoring after years of ‘‘overfishing
and mismanagement,”’ was again in
crisis.

“‘When the present roe fishery as
we know it started in 1970, we were
given absolute assurance by the
Fisheries Service this would never
happen again, that strict controls
would be imposed ensuring no over-
fishing and no despoiling of the
spawning grounds.” It slammed the
department for setting quotas suc-
cessively higher each season until
88,000 tons were taken in 1977 and
a 100,000-ton quota was set in 1978.

Association of United Ukrainian Canadians

ranium ponds called unsafe

company had signed an interim
agreement with the South Korean
Electric Company to sell uranium
mined at the Blizzard site. The
agreement is conditional to ap-
proval from the provincial govern-
ment.

When other intervenors and the
commission’s lawyer, Russ An-
thony, asked Norcen to produce the
interim agreement, the .company
refused, claiming that it wasn’t rele-
vant to the inquiry.

“*For all intents the Blizzard ore
is sold,’? Ralph Torrie, spokesman
for environmentalists in Beaverdell,
Rock Creek, Grand -Forks and
Kelowna, shot back, ‘‘Norcen and
the government must have already
determined that the standards will
be easy to meet. We are dealing
with a corporation which holds lit-
tle respect for the commission and
is a hostile witness.’

The Norcen deal with the South
Koreans has also confirmed the opi-
nions of most opposition in-
tervenors that the provincial
government is committed to
uranium mining, after the Bates In-
quiry assures the public of its safe-
ty.,

And Dr. David Bates, the former
head of the UBC School of
Medicine heading up the commis-
sion, has done nothing to dispel
that idea. Bates has, in fact, public-
ly stated that the question of
whether or not uranium mining will
be allowed in B.C. is outside the
terms of reference for the commis-
sion. Those terms, spelled out by
press release when the commission
was established in Sept. 1978, made
it clear that its purpose was to “‘set
standards appropriate for specific
conditions in B.C.’’ and to ‘‘make
recommendations to the cabinet
which will be used in setting stan-
dards and regulations for mine
development, worker safety and ob-
jectives for tailing ponds, and for
control of radioactive discharges
for uranium mines.”’

Bates used the terms of reference
to rebuff constant demands from
environmentalists and the B.C.
Federation of Labor for a
moratorium on uranium mining
development and exploration, pen-
ding the outcome of the inquiry.

U.S.
uranium expert warns of mining
hazards.

PAUL ROBINSON ...

In Sept. of this year, Bates releas-
ed an interim report which conclud-
ed bluntly that present regulations
governing exploration and mine
development are inadequate to pro-
tect the public and environment. In
particular, the hundreds of test drill
holes in urdnium claims pose
definite dangers, the report warned.

In spite of the conclusions,
however, Bates would not recom-
mend a moratorium on further ex-
ploration until proper regulations
were in place. Instead, he sug-
gested that the province’s chief in-
spector of mines inspect and
regulate the test drilling, and license
operators for uranium exploration.

Exploration is proceeding at a
rapid pace. Dec. 5 Bates released a
document listing 46 claims in
Okanagan Valley alone. Although
most have been ‘‘found, staked and
left’’, some have been test drilled.
Norcen, for example, has more
than 300 test holes in the 42,000
acre Blizzard claim.

Originally scheduled to wind up
in February, the commission has ex-
tended its hearings until June, 1980.
Phase six on environmental impact
is to finish Dec. 14 and phase seven
on public and worker health will re-
open the hearings Jan. 8. Over
following months the commission
will re-examine mining, milling and
waste management; environmental
impact, public and worker health;
social impact; ethical questions;
and regulations and enforcement. It
all happens at the Devonshire Hotel
in Downtown Vancouver.

Greetings

to all our friends
* and fellow workers i
the building of peace!

May 1980 begin
the decade of disarmament.

End the Arms Race
B.C. PEACE COUNCIL

'Feliz Navidad
Y Prospero and Nuevo!
Season’s Greetings

to all our Cuban and Canadian :
friends

May the Cuban Revolution
continue its great successes
on the path of progress and peace and
the happiness and well-being of its people

Canadian Cuban Friendship Association

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— DECEMBER 19, 1979—Page 5