Land, plants, creatures face impacts from Nunavut’s Mary River mine

The North Baffin landscape shown here in the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mary River mine will change in many ways if the proposed iron maine moves ahead as early as 2012. The plants, birds and animals which live in and around the mine site will also experience changes, according to the draft EIS.

This map from the draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Mary River iron mine shows the area in and around the proposed mine in northern Baffin Island.

No living plant and creature or even the land around the future Mary River iron mine will escape impacts during the huge mine’s construction, operation and closure.

Dust and land work will impact or kill all blueberries and crowberries growing around the mine site in North Baffin, says volume six of the 10-volume Environmental Impact Statement.

Snow geese, eiders, loons and falcons will lose some nesting and foraging sites, while some caribou may die a direct result of the project through collisions, or indirectly through increased harvesting access, it says.

And, overall, the land around the mine site will undergo a massive transformation during the period when roads, airstrips, the railway, waste rock stockpiles and support infrastructure including buildings and the Milne Port and Steensby Port facilities are built, operate and close down.

Some places will never return to the way they look today, and “it is not expected that disturbed areas will become re-vegetated until after closure of the mine,” says the draft EIS.

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. delivered this draft EIS to the Nunavut Impact Review Board earlier this year before its buy-out by the steel-making giant ArcelorMittal.

During the mine’s 33 years lifespan, from construction to closure, soil destabilization and erosion will occur, the draft EIS says.

Direct changes to the land will occur from construction. The Milne port, the Milne Inlet tote road and mine site will affect an area of 38 sq. km., while the railway and Steensby port will affect 72 sq km..

The mine will also affect “culturally valued vegetation” in and around the site, the draft EIS says.

Previous work there has already affected vegetation, but the new disturbances will remove all vegetation within the mine area, it says.

“Regeneration of the disturbed area is a slow process and will not occur until beyond the life of the project,” and revegetation will be allowed to occur naturally, the draft EIS says.

Dust will coat what vegetation manages to grow in an area of about 40 square kilometres around the mine— and this dust contains many metals, some of which can prove toxic in high concentrations.

While metal accumulation in blueberries is expected to be low overall, “there is a high degree of uncertainty in this statement, due to the unique environmental conditions in the Arctic,” says the draft EIS.

No rare plants were found during field surveys, and the Mary River mine is not expected to have any effects on rare Arctic plants.

As for wildlife, the Mary River mine will have a no-hunting policy in place for all mine workers. Workers will not be permitted to disturb wildlife under any circumstances.

However, falcons, snow geese, common and king eiders, red-throated loons and caribou all face possibly life-threatening changes to their environment due to impacts outlined in the draft EIS:

Snow geese

“Construction, operations and closure in the port footprint area will produce constant noise disturbance” to snow geese, says the EIS.

But the snow geese using this area should be able to find alternative sites to land in the immediate vicinity of the low lying coastal plains of Steensby Inlet.

Aircraft flying in and out of the two port sites may collide with geese, especially those migrating through these areas in very large flocks.

The mine’s fleet of ships travelling in and out of Eclipse Sound pass near Canada’s largest snow goose colony on Bylot Island, as well as large seabird colonies at Cape Graham Moore. Its ships travelling through Foxe Basin and Hudson Strait will also pass several bird colonies.

“These ship passages may disturb nesting birds at their colonies, but it is possible that these birds could come into contact with the ships when foraging on the water. However, it is thought that ship movements along shipping lanes will have inconsequential effects on foraging marine birds along the shipping lanes as bird collisions with ships is unlikely and the periodic requirement to move out of a ship’s path will not be a major energetic stress to birds,” says the draft EIS.

Eiders

Common and king eiders are seen in large numbers in the coastal waters near Steensby and Milne Inlets. Hundreds of common and king eiders use both the proposed port sites as migratory stop-over sites during their spring and fall migrations, and dozens of female eiders have been seen raising young in Steensby Inlet.

“These birds will be displaced from coastal marine and terrestrial habitat used for staging, nesting, foraging, and brood-rearing by port construction, and/or disrupted by noise disturbances during construction, operation, and closure activities,” the draft EIS says.

Disturbed eiders will abandon traditional nesting and foraging areas directly within and adjacent to the proposed Steensby port. However, the draft EIS predicts that they will simply move approximately one km to either side of the port, “to less disruptive, seemingly suitable habitat.”

The draft EIS says it’s possible that during the first year of construction, displaced eiders may be “forced to forego breeding for a single year as they become confused and spend time seeking out and establishing themselves in new breeding habitats.”

But it predicts that they will be able to move quickly to nearby habitat and “will not be affected at all.”

Falcons

Falcons will experience both “direct and indirect habitat loss to nesting and foraging areas” as a result of the Mary River mine, says the draft EIS.

Peregrine falcons are known to be relatively tolerant to disturbance and have been seen nesting on artificial structures in high traffic areas such as concrete ledges on city buildings and bridges smokestacks and power generating station, it notes.

But it says there is a lack of information describing the level of disturbance required to cause birds to flush from or abandon their nest completely, it says.

A gyrfalcon nest located near the railway will mean its “unavoidable removal of this nest.”

Loons

Loons will be displaced by port construction, and disrupted by noise disturbances during construction, operation and closure activities. As a result, loons are expected to abandon traditional nesting and feeding areas.

Caribou

Caribou mortality may increase as a direct result of the project through collisions, or indirectly through increased harvesting access, says the draft EIS.

As a result, wildlife monitors will travel along the road and rail routes looking for animal trails twice per yea to attempt to determine if the caribou were deterred from crossing. Truck drivers and all employees will be required to report caribou sightings.

“We are confident that the project will have a not significant effect on overall north Baffin Island caribou,” says the draft EIS.

The document also suggests many mitigation strategies to lessen the mine’s potential effects to birds.

These include limiting activity and noise emissions “to the extent possible, to non-nesting periods,” preventing low-level air traffic above known nests and nesting areas during the nesting period, and over any large concentrations of birds, routing ships to maximize distances between the ships and shorelines to remain at least two km from seabird colonies and handling ship discharges in conformity with the Canada Shipping Act and the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act as well as oil spill emergency response plans in accordance with the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act.

This map from the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Mary River iron mine shows its location with Baffin Island and North America.