Conuma Resources near Tumbler Ridge, B.C. repeatedly failed to monitor waste water flowing into fish-bearing streams and failed to limit particulate released into airshed, the province has found. A B.C. coal mining company in northeastern B.C. has been fined more than $45,000 for repeated violations of the province's environmental protection rules, including the failure to monitor mine waste into fish-bearing water and failure to limit particulate being put into the air.
However, the company argued that wildfires in the region, as well as slash-burning from nearby forestry operations, were also contributing factors and it should not be held solely responsible. However, he did rule that Conuma did violate the rules on multiple other occasions, despite warnings, and ordered a total penalty for air quality violations of $4,750, down from the original $22,000 initially proposed by the ministry.Conuma was not as successful in reducing its penalty for its failure to comply with water monitoring, which was ruled to have occurred on 406 separate dates between Oct. 21, 2020 and Jan. 1 2023, for which Bourgeois applied a base penalty of $10,000.
Rainbow trout are among several fish species living in waterways into which effluent from mining operations near Tumbler Ridge is discharged.