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A prairie nature group is concerned a new solution potash mine will destroy what little natural landscape remains in the area.
The Ministry of Environment gave the Albany Potash Project, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Regina near Francis and Sedley, conditional approval based on an environmental assessment.
However, the nature group Public Pastures – Public Interest (PPPI) argues the project will destroy habitat for prairie wildlife and plants, and permanently remove millions of cubic metres of water per year from the Qu’Appelle Watershed along with releasing tons of greenhouse gases.
The company that owns the mine, CanPacific Potash Inc., must develop a compensation plan for approval by the Ministry of Environment to manage potential impacts to the environment.
The plan must identify ways to restore or enhance existing areas or create new grasslands and wetlands. CanPacific must also set a timeline to complete the work and monitoring of the areas and get approval from the ministry for future development of the well-field area.
PPPI is not convinced the conditions put in place by the ministry will ensure native grassland and wetland remain protected.
“The environmental assessment says they will avoid these (native prairie) areas where possible and impacts will be minimized. Well, that’s just not quite good enough. Either they’re protected or they’re not,” said co-chair Lorne Scott.
Scott explained while the condition to restore the habitat sounds reasonable, he believes the best restoration is often a poor substitute for old growth and long-established wetlands. PPPI does not put much faith in the industry’s ability to restore habitat, adding the results are often worse than before with degraded landscapes infested with invasive species.
“The layperson would feel, ‘Oh good, they’re going to replace the native prairie and they’ll replace wetlands. No problem.’ In actual fact, nobody has succeeded in re-establishing native prairie that is as good and original as the old,” said Scott.
The province said once the compensation plan is implemented, monitoring and annual reporting will be required until the offsetting project is considered complete. If any issues are found, more measures will need to be taken to ensure projects like revegetation and weed management are successful.
The nature group questions how the government can justify the project in a time when young people are calling on politicians to make wise decisions on climate change and water use.
PPPI also questions why the mine couldn’t have been moved to nearby cultivated land, reducing the displacement of the species at risk that depend on grassland and wetland.
The ministry explained CanPacific has committed to avoid native grasslands and wetlands as much as possible by selecting locations on cultivated lands. While it said no native grasslands will be impacted, 70 hectares of wetlands will be. That impact will need to be offset as per the approval.
PPPI said recent mapping shows Saskatchewan has lost more than 86 per cent of its original prairie habitat. Scott stressed even small areas of remaining wetland and grassland are important to preserve.
“These remnants are very important to a variety of birds and animals and several of the species in this area are species of concern. They’re not endangered yet but their numbers are declining and (there’s) no sign of them reversing,” said Scott.
Solution mining is considered a more environmentally friendly method than conventional mining. The salt stays underground or is used in the process resulting in no tailings pile above ground. However, Scott wants to prevent the destruction of any amount of grassland or wetland due to mining.
“When you get down to only 14 per cent remaining (native prairie habitat), everything that does remain is important,” Scott said.
Other concerns include the amount of water used for a solution mine, which will be taken from Buffalo Pound Lake.
The requirement will range from 24,000 to 39,6000 cubic metres per day depending on the plant production rate, according to the Water Security Agency. To compare, Regina used an average of 84,712 cubic metres per day in 2017, while Moose Jaw used an average of 15,488 cubic metres per day.
In a release, Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said: “During the public review period of this project, we heard concerns about the potential impacts to native grasslands and wetlands and those concerns have been directly addressed in this decision to grant conditional approval for the project.”
Duncan explained environmental assessment decisions are founded on scientific evidence and those comments from the public.
PPPI said while it’s good to see the province is putting some conditions on the approval, it hopes the project will be shut down during the next phase of approvals.