Panel Report

The major recommendations are summarized in this section. The rationale behind these recommendations, along with other findings, conclusions and secondary recommendations, are presented in Chapters 5 - 12. On the basis of its review of the Midwest Project, we wish to make five primary recommendations, two of them with conditions attached.

4.1 The Midwest Mine

Approval to develop the Midwest ore body as proposed in the Environmental Impact Statement is recommended, provided the following conditions are met:

• that all special waste rock be placed underground or in mined-out pits at the McClean Lake site;
• that the waste rock pile proposed for the west side of Mink Arm be monitored for several decades. If acid mine drainage is observed to occur, the waste rock should be removed to one of the mined-out Sue pits; and
• that Cogema be required to study the fish, macrophytes and sediments in Mink Arm continuously from the present time until after mining ceases and contaminant concentrations in the biota, water and sediments reach acceptable levels.

4.2 The JEB Tailings Management Facility (TMF)

It is recommended that permission be given to use the JEB pit as a disposal facility for tailings produced from the milling of Midwest ore, provided that the following conditions are met:

• the proponent must demonstrate experimentally that porewater contaminant concentrations can be maintained at acceptable levels in aged tailings;
• if approval is eventually given to construct a TMF in the JEB pit, the chemical and physical properties of the deposited tailings must be monitored carefully, including periodic assessment of porewater quality;
• Fox Lake must not be used as a mixing zone;
• sediments in Fox Lake must be monitored;
• the more stringent of the Saskatchewan Surface Water Quality Objectives (SSWQO) or the recently amended Canadian Water Quality Guidelines (CWQG) must be used when modelling the expected contamination of Fox Lake;
• a better geotechnical assessment of the underdrain portal should be provided, and design improvements made if required;
• tailings, after consolidation, should not be above the top of the sandstone formation;
• procedures for mitigating all potential unacceptable impacts must be identified before deposition begins. The construction of a hydraulic cage or raising the water level in Fox Lake should be more completely described and approved in principle by appropriate federal and provincial departments before deposition begins;
• the operator should be required to demonstrate that it possesses adequate managerial and scientific competence before responsibility to construct and operate this highly dangerous facility is approved;
• the operator should demonstrate that it is capable of, and intent upon, giving thoughtful, sincere and professional attention to the concerns of the regulators, Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) and the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB); and
• arrangements should be made to provide for perpetual monitoring of this and other tailings management facilities if approval is given. Financial arrangements should be made, prior to approval, for such monitoring. Monitoring should include the participation of local people as described in Section 4.4.

4.3 Health and Safety

The provincial government should review regulations regarding the health and safety of mine workers to ensure that they reflect current mining practices and are based on the incorporation of modern technologies.

The Province should initiate an independent review of inferences that mine inspectors may not have acted with complete objectivity at all times.

4.4 Environmental Monitoring

The impacts of the various components of this project -- mining, transporting and milling of the ore, and disposal of the tailings -- will require monitoring, in some cases for much longer than suggested in the Environmental Impact Statement.

To be effective, monitoring must include the participation of local people. We favour the use of the Environmental Quality Committees for community stakeholder involvement. These committees should be provided with adequate financial support to educate and train committee members in the various issues related to uranium mining.

Tailings management facilities, in particular, will require monitoring in perpetuity, and possible mitigative activities at some time in the future. For this reason, it is recommended that a Uranium Mining Contingency Fund be established to provide for the continuing costs of long-term monitoring and possible mitigation, after the responsibility for the sites is returned to the province.

4.5 Northern Economic Development Strategy

The federal and provincial governments, together with northern representatives, should continue joint discussions on an economic development strategy that ensures the people of northern Saskatchewan, and of the Athabasca Basin in particular, will be major beneficiaries of this and other uranium mining projects. Agreement on this strategy should be in place before the resource is further depleted.