NEWS
Grassy Mountain Coal Proposal
Kick Start to LLG Fundraising
The Livingstone Landowners group has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Each year the organization funds local community work to support their missions to protect and connect habitat so that wildlife and people thrive.
The grant, announced March 28, comes as we are initiating a critical new fundraising effort to address a new environmental threat relating to proposed coal mine development in the region, Grassy Mountain Coal.
Photo by Keith McClary / CC BY-SA
Cumulative Effects Analysis on Coal Mine Impact
The recent grant and proposed fundraising will be used to help us contribute to a cumulative effects analysis of the potential environmental effects of several proposed open pit coal mines west of the Livingstone Range. The study includes the Grassy Mountain project which is currently being evaluated by a joint federal-provincial regulatory panel.
The LLG is working with other interested organizations and individuals to ensure that any decisions on new coal mining projects are based on the best possible analysis of the impacts on those of us living downwind and downstream. This grant will help ensure that we can engage the best expertise to get that done.
Grassy Mountain Coal Public Input
March 19, 2020 – The Joint Review Panel is inviting public comments on the additional information received from the proponent. Comments should be provided to the Joint Review Panel by May 4, 2020.
Public Input Opportunity
LLG members have an opportunity through this process to provide comments on the proposed open-pit coal mine west of the Livingstone Range.
The public is invited to provide comments on the sufficiency and technical merit of the most recent Benga Mining Limited’s response (Eleventh Addendum) to the Environmental Impact Assessment (canada.ca/iaac, reference number 80101) related to the project. Participants are also invited to make recommendations to the Joint Review Panel on additional information that it should receive prior to proceeding to a public hearing for the project.
The public can submit comments and recommendations to the Joint Review Panel at IAAC.GrassyMountain.AEIC@canada.ca by May 4, 2020. A resource document, including template, to assist participants in the preparation of their submissions is available.
The 1344 page Eleventh Addendum from Benga is their response to questions asked by the Joint Review panel from Benga’s original application and subsequent addendums (1-10).
LLG Response
LLG is working collaboratively with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and other stakeholders to review the large document in detail and decide how best to submit comments with the help of scientists and specialists to address the sufficiency (or insufficiency) and technical merit of the addendum.
This process will require hiring experts and thus will require donations to fund the work. Interested LLG members and the public are encouraged to donate at (link to our payment page) and to provide your own personal feedback on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The Joint Review Panel has not announced a date for public hearing on the project yet and acceptance of participants in the hearing process will not be decided upon by the Joint Review Panel until a hearing is announced.
Water video released for World Water Day
March 22, 2020
Finding Water: Healthy Land, Healthy Stream is a visually stunning and deeply informative exploration of the headwaters of the Oldman River on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies. The 25-minute documentary film is both a celebration of some of the most beautiful streams anywhere, and a cautionary warning about their vulnerability to our use of the surrounding land.
“We think of water as something that comes from a stream,” says narrator Kevin Van Tighem. “And it does. But it also comes to the stream. And our water security — how clean it is, how bad the spring floods get, how cold and abundant our summer water supply is — depends on how it gets there.”