Arctic Bay residents want details on Nanisivik health risks

Residents of Arctic Bay want to know more about the risks to wildlife and people posed by the former Nanisivik Mine, because their health and any future plans for the abandoned town site depend on how well it’s cleaned up.

“We know there have been some studies done – we’ve seen a lot of studies done,” said Joanasie Akumalik, the mayor of Arctic Bay.

But the community is increasingly curious to learn exactly what’s happening – in plain and simple language.

“We’re just a small organization here,” Akumalik said. “It’s quite different for us, we don’t have the money or expertise.”

Later this month, Akumalik wants to attend a meeting in Ottawa called by the Nunavut Water Board.

The meeting, to be held Sept. 22 and 23 at the Delta Hotel, will bring together all the parties involved in the $11.5-million clean-up of the zinc-lead mine near Arctic Bay that shut down last year.

Breakwater Resources Ltd. and its team of consultants will be questioned about its assessment reports on risks to human health and the area’s ecology posed by the former mine and town site.

It will be the third – and final – round of questions and comments about this particular study. The meeting is lead to a clearer idea of what the clean-up must achieve.

The face-off follows the tabling in August of an independent, external review of Breakwater’s risk assessment, prepared by two experts who looked at it for completeness and accuracy.

Dr. Ulysses Klee and Dr. Bryan Leece were leery of how Breakwater’s consultant, Jacques Whitford Environmental Ltd., evaluated health risks around the mine and in the community, citing a number of “outstanding technical issues.”

Klee and Leece expressed concern about how these issues could affect the kind of clean-up measures that need to be carried out.

But the overall impact on the land from the mine is probably “not significant,” Klee said, speaking in a telephone interview last week.

“The vegetation will grow. Animals that live there will have a slightly higher exposure to metals,” he added.

In addition, the buildings at the mine site don’t appear to represent a health concern.

“But when you think about the individual, you have to protect every last little person,” Klee said.

That’s why it’s important to base any assessment of human health risk on proper information, Klee said.

To that end, the two experts didn’t think the background data Breakwater used for soil in its original state were “suitable.” To correct a potentially risky condition, it’s necessary to know the original state of the soil before the mine began operation.

Breakwater used soil samples from Ontario for comparison, as well as some samples from the mine site taken in 1985 – after mining had already begun.

Klee said it’s preferable to use material collected closer to a site in a risk assessment.

“I think Ontario is a bit of a stretch,” Klee said.

He said local soil should have been used – as well as local water, air and household dust – to compare today’s environment with the way it was before mining began at Nanisivik.

The experts also questioned the way levels for lead exposure in the town area were calculated. Breakwater based its analysis of exposure to such contaminants as cadmium and lead in food, using supermarket food and levels from the U.S.

During the meeting in Ottawa, Klee and Leece will talk about their review’s conclusions.

They’ll discuss what they say are other shortfalls in the assessment. For example, they say it didn’t include information on people or animals, or look at the presence of some heavy metals in the town site or the dock area, or consider the cancer risks that some heavy metals pose to human health.

In August, the NWB conditionally accepted Breakwater’s environmental site inspection, but told Breakwater that it wants more information on 15 additional points before giving final approval to the company’s plans.

The NWB wants more information on PCBs, past spills, what a white solid substance near the solid waste facility is, and why other soil is stained green and blue.

All this, according to the NWB, is a way of fine-tuning Breakwater’s obligation under its water licence to restore the land in and around the Nanisivik mine site.

The company’s final abandonment and restoration plan is due Dec. 15.

Meanwhile, the NWB is sending its community coordinator, Patrick Duxbury, to Arctic Bay the week before the Ottawa meeting to update residents on what’s going on and to tell them what they can expect from the clean-up process.

Levi Barnabas, the NWB’s community liaison agent in Arctic Bay, will also attend the Ottawa meeting.