A long-awaited cleanup of toxic metal at one of the province's most contaminated abandoned mine sites will likely start by late summer, according to a provincial official.
Ernie Armitt, provincial mines director, said remediation of a noxious mine site at Sherridon is slated to begin as early as August.
Toxic remnants from the Sherridon mine -- including zinc, lead and cobalt -- have been spewing into Camp Lake and running off into Kississing Lake for years, posing a danger to fish and, potentially, the health of area residents.
The corrosive metals have turned parts of area lake water and rocks red, and routinely blow through Sherridon, a small town of 100 residents about 60 kilometres northeast of Flin Flon.
Armitt said crews will begin constructing a dike in part of Camp Lake, to raise part of the lake's level to flood the mine's tailings pond -- an area that stores the ground-up waste rock and chemicals left over from the mine. Limestone will be added to Camp Lake to neutralize the tailings acid and a new water treatment plan will ensure area residents get their water from a pristine lake instead of a potentially tainted water source.
Armitt said the severity of the pollution in Sherridon is similar to that at Lynn Lake, where tailings have destroyed trees and polluted the local landscape.
Armitt said the Sherridon project will cost $23 million and be completed by 2011.
"It's a mess," he said, noting not much vegetation is left in the barren area. "If you go right now, it's all brown."
The news that remediation is finally near was a relief to area residents like Tim Matheson, who say they've been waiting for decades to see the mine tailings cleaned up for good.
Matheson, who runs a fishing lodge on Kississing Lake, said every year acidic water spills into Kississing and has caused problems with the fish. A previous study found much of the area around Kississing Lake is no longer suitable for spawning and fish development.
"I'm not a geologist or a chemist, but I do know it's not a good lake," Matheson said, referring to the water from Camp Lake. "It's a dead lake."
The Sherridon mine was identified as one of the province's five high-risk contaminated mine sites, along with Lynn Lake, Baker Lake, Paton Lake, God's Lake and Snow Lake. Several years ago, a federal government scientist found nearby water had some of the highest levels of metal contamination in the country, and possibly the world.
Copper and zinc were mined in Sherridon until the early 1950s, when the mine shut down.
Sherridon Mayor Nick Benyk said studies haven't been able to pinpoint any negative health effects from the pollution, but the red dust from the tailings routinely blows around town. Benyk said there is still red-orange tailings waste sitting on remaining snowpiles.
jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca
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