Ta? 1 _ MARGARET SPEIRS SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN _ ‘Mine swine - ometimes' you come across a proposal so vile and. audacious you have to read it ‘twice to convince yourself that you read it correctly the first time. So it'was for me + when I encountered the news that Huckleberry Mines was applying to ~ the: BC government for an’ amendment to its discharging permit. More of this plea later, but first some background "" information to provide some context so that you may more fully appreciate its absurdity. Our forebears called the fluid, mercurial metal ' they obtained by the reduction of cinnabar quick- silver. We aptly call it mercury, after the fleet foot-, ed messenger god of Roman mythology. Scientists labelled it Hg, . short for the Latin hhydragyrum, meaning watery silver. Mercury i is magical stuff..You can float billiard ~ balls in it. You can put it-in a graduated cylinder - and measure temperature changes with it. Dentists ‘mixed it with other materials and packed hollowed , out molars with it. They don’t do that anymore... Since the time when hatters’ went mad because. they used it in the construction of their wares, _ mercury’s slippery toxicity. has come to be better understood. ‘Fuel your search engine. with mercury, hit the return key and it won "tbe long before you find the word “autism.” There are strong linkages between mercury and | autism, as was discovered by medical researchers . . desperate to find the reason why, in this land of wealth and opportunity, approximately one child ‘in 150 is afflicted with some form of this insidious ‘neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself ‘in markedly abnormal social interaction, difficulty in communicating and strange patterns of behav- iour. It turns out that kids get mercury in utero from mothers who’ve absorbed it from an industrial waste-tainted environment and/or are leaking it from mercury-based amalgam in their teeth. It’s also been discovered that thimersol, a form: of mercury that is many times: more toxic than mercury itself, is used in the manufacture of vac~ >cines which well-meaning nurses have been inject- ‘ ing into infants for quite some time. Eating mercury-tainted fish is another way to build up your mercury supply. om It works this way: once it enters an aquatic en- vironment, mercury is converted to organic meth- ylmercury and is taken up into thé food chain.and ultimately into fish. Methylmercury is a known’ neurotoxin and when consumed by pregnant wom- en it readily crosses the placenta and targets the , developing fetal brain. It transpires that mercury is so efficiently accu- mulated in the aquatic food web that fish'at the top of the food chain may have levels of. mercury in their muscle tissue that are one million times high- er than the mercury concentration in the water. Because of this extreme bioaccumulation, it , takes very little mercury to contaminate a water way and its fish. It’s abundantly clear that all of us — particularly pregnant women — should endeavour to decrease _ Our mercury consumption as well as work assidu- ously for decreased mercury pollution. Especially since we now know that mercury never disappears in the:environment, ensuring that contamination today will remain a problem forever. So, what are the men at Imperial Metals, the owner of Huckleberry Mines, applying for? Just a “permit to dump five million cubic metres of waste . from their tailings pond into Tahtsa Lake per year — the equivalent of 114 railcar loads per day. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Tahtsa Lake is part.of the Nechako Reservoir, which is the headwaters of the Upper’ Nechako River, the largest tributary of the Fraser River. Through a network of lakes and hydroelectric | ‘tunnels, Tahtsa Lake is connected'to both Fraser River and. Kemano River. — Chief Leween of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, whose territorial land encompasses the Huckleber- ry Mine and Tahtsa Lake, calls the effluent “Huck-. leberry soup,” a deadly broth made of copper, mer- cury, zinc, and.other harmful chemicals. The application to amend the permit to allow discharge into Tahtsa Lake was unanimously op- posed by the Regional District of Bulkley-Necha- ko at their Jan. 12 meeting. According to a Lakes District News poll among local residents, 100 per cent of the interviewees were against the application. Jobs should never take precedence over the en- ' vironment. In this case jobs are hardly an issue as: - the mine is slated to be closed in 2007. It remains to be seen if Campbell’s Libs will: - refuse the application or do the fishy thing and ac- cede to the wishes of a company that just happened to have donated 16 grand to them. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - BS y 4 mam 6€6UTERRACE STANDARD CHLOE ALLISON cheers for her dad, and River Kings forward, #9 Darcy Allison Guringt the River + Kings final “I playoff game against Smithers ~ ‘at the Terrace Arena Feb. 12. The Kings downed the Steelheads 3-2 to take.their second game in.the best-of-three series and advance to_~ the Kal Tire Cup against arch rival Kitimat to determine the CIHL champs before moving, on to the Coy Cup ii in March to compete against the. "province 'S best teams for the title of Senior AA Men’s League champions... THE RIVER Kings skate into their second, and - if. necessary third; Kal Tire Cup game against Kitimat this weekend, readying themselves for the upcoming Coy Cup. after ending their sophomore « CIHL season in second place and advancing after eliminating their competition. Terrace smacked Houston 6-4 and then settled for a five-all tie to end the regular season. Coach Trevor Hendry praised his players, say- ing the team needed the points. “Taking three out of four points is good. Hous- ton only had one loss coming into this series,” he said, adding that the River Kings can go away. knowing they can beat any team. After dropping the Steelheads 7-5 in the first they had planned. playoff game in Smithers, where Nate McNama- ra scored his first goal, the River Kings returned © home to disappoint their fans with a 6-2 loss. ' The squad rallied and returned to battle to a 3- 2 victory to advance to the championship game in - the CIHL — the Kal Tire Cup — against Kitimat. Coach Trevor Hendry said the team. fought back because they had no choice. “It was do-or-die today,” he said. “I couldn’ t be more proud of the guys.” The team had lost several players to injuries and the remaining squad stuck to the “ ‘system” “Darcy (Allison), Mario (Desjardins) and Troy Butler stepped up,” he said. “Brad (Norwood) did; : ings show fearlessni i “unbelievably areat. He covered then net t well.” an re Norwood, who. replaced - Burny : Carlsen in’. J... “} . the second game after Smithers went ahead 5-1, saved multiple Smithers’ shots in the third game, ~- and came off the ice completely relaxed. The former Terrace bantam and. -midget rep ‘netminder ‘said he never gets nervous. and that: they’re “just fun games.” « ee i “I’ve done it a million times,” he said. en en Hendry is confident that Terrace will win and.’ J. |./° warns the other teams to be ready. - _ “They should be worried about us,’ The River Kings. will face the Ice. Demons, Fort St. John and either Coquitlam or a north ‘Vancouver, | ° Island team at the Coy Cup i in Kitimat March 7 to:11. MARGARET s SPEIRS PHOTO a y he said. i. . - Bantam reps outplay, o 3-4 record in several challenging : recent tourneys. The bantams split three games in .Vanderhoof for a third place fin- ish against teams they met. for the first time this season. * Prince Rupert was a good little ‘team with.a good goalie and the players weren’t as big as feared, said coach John Amos.. Their game finished in a five- , all tie, a fantastic comeback after ‘THE BANTAM reps netted a nae Rupert was up 4-2 2 after the second - . period. Reid Turner scored two, Chap- en Leblond netted one and Ben ° Reinbolt and Scott Simpson scored © one each. _ Garrett Muir stood on his head - ’ The bantams wallopped the Williams Lake AAA team 5-2. Leblond came up with two goals, Turner scored. one. along with Joey Cormano and Will Fish- er. _ Then ‘the squad lost 4-1 on power play goals to Vanderhoof’s A team, probably one of the stron- gest. A teams in the province, _ Amos said. Simpson netted the team’s lone _ goal on an assist from Leblond. The Bantams travelled to a Kiti-_ mat tourney and came away with a. 1-2-1 record Jan. 20. They blasted Burns Lake 8- 0, ‘tied Prince Rupert 4-4 and lost 5-3 ” to Whitehorse and 6-4 to - Kitimat. The weekend’s top scorers -in- in net in the third period, making cluded Reid Turner with seven some big saves. goals and Chapen Leblond with _ “Another five minutes ‘and we’ six. 1 would’ ve won. We didn’t lose, we... Scott Simpson and Joey Corma- just ran out of time,” Amos said. + no netted two 0 each. Will Fisher and Cory Hubbard. scored one each. The Prince Rupert series Jan. 27 : “ saw our local boys, and girl, tie the visitors, 6-6 then slam them 7-4. ° Lee’ Muir, Joey Cormano and Chapen Leblond scored three each ; over the weekend. . Ceasar Kenyon, Will Fisher and . Corbin Legros netted two each, ‘Ben Reinbolt scored ‘one goal. Scott Simpson had. four assists. Reid Turner and Colby Ames had. * ‘ oneassisteach. . = ‘The team outplayed and outshot Prince Rupert in their. first meet- ing, but Rupert netminder Jordan Vanderwiel. played very well and kept his squad in the game, said - coach John Amos. “On Saturday we figured how to score.on him and outplayed them , in the third period,” he said. -Prince. Rupert had a shorter bench and tired in the third period, ° giving the bantams several chances outshoot foes “ playing well in the net. - | ‘with Prince Rupert, this time play- * me ot . bea challenge thanks, to-the host’ ss ‘but had to settle for a:1-1 tie. one i in for the team’s lone goal. "blasted Rupert 5-2. ‘Muir, Corey Hubbard and Joey. - Cormano scored one each. wrist, ‘earlier in the season and Haworth was suspended after re-- who hit him-in their last meeting. * to Score... : : Amos credits Garrett Muir r with - The team’s . “second ‘ meeting “pe ing in the coastal city, : proved: to. ~ goalie. ae Terrace outshot: Rupert 42 to 15. ‘ Joey: Cormano managed to Y get ‘In the - ‘second game, Terrace _ 5 | Reid Turner scored two and Lee: Amos said the team was missing- Te two of. its big defencemen; Colton, oa Dunsmore and Kevin Haworth. * -Dunsmore: suffered a broken: taliating’ against a ‘Rupert player Basketball girls slam their opponents | ~Thornhill, Skeenha and Nisga’ a players rule the courts at home and away | SKEENA AND THORNHILL Junior girls basketball have treated fans to a’series of barn bumers this season. . In Jan. 20 play,. the Smithers A team slipped past the Skeena Grade 10s 39-31. The Skeena Grade 9s crushed the Smithers B team 51-23. Houston‘s #2 team beat Skeena’s B_ team 35-33. The Skeena Grade 10s fell to Prince Rupert’s second team 43-29. ; Audrey MacKay, Skeena athletic director, saidthe games were “barn burners.” She said in the past, Prince Rupert - teams dominated but this year the teams are closer in ability - and more competitive. In Grade 8 girls action, Skeena dropped Thornhill 30- 18. Thornhill’s junior girls squeaked out a 28-27 win over Mount Elizabeth, lost to Hazelton 37-18 then rebounded to § trounce Smithers Bteam 41-15. On Jan. 30, Thornhill Grade 8 girls scored a win and a loss to visiting teams.«§gernhill fell toshéount Elizabeth 42-28 then came back to beat Hazelton 25-21. The Nisga’a team levelled Prince Rupert Secondary 52-34... ’ Thornhill Grade 8 girls travelled to Smithers for two . wins and one loss Feb. 4. Thornhill beat Houston 36-33 and Hazelton 45-43 and dropped.a, game 54-33 to Nisga’a. Cont'd Page B12 THE SKEENA Grade 9 girls listen to some coaching advice during their game against .- the Thornhill Grade 9 girls at Thornhill Junior Secondary Feb 4. The teams battled for “every point and Thornhill won 33-29 ir in overtime. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO