Charting Marine Pollution Science: Oceanography on Canada’s Pacific Coast, 1938-1970

In drawing attention to how ‘place’ situates and configures scientific practice, recent scholarship examining historical geographies of science tends to overlook how natural places shape scientific ideas, practices and institutions. This paper suggests that environmental factors may be conceived in terms of the interplay of ‘site and situation’ in environmental science. It examines the pioneering marine pollution research program developed at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Beginning with an analysis of pulp mill effluent in Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island, oceanographers at the station undertook studies aimed at minimizing threats to commercial fisheries from aquatic pollution on the B.C. coast. As a key site of pollution research, Alberni Inlet was situated within a variety of environmental, institutional and social contexts: the politics of resource exploitation in B.C., institutions of fisheries research and regulation, and the disciplinary practices of marine pollution science on the Pacific coast. By the 1960s, the board’s Pacific Oceanographic Group had developed a leading research program in marine pollution science, and the Alberni experience formed the basis for a coast-wide inventory of environments receiving industrial wastes. Oceanographers framed pollution control in terms of ‘assimilative capacity,’ or the ability of natural waters to dilute, disperse and absorb industrial wastes without harm to valuable commercial fish species. As subsequent pollution problems revealed, however, this instrumental approach to environmental management tended to ignore ecological complexity and variability, and the unforeseen consequences of engineering natural systems as waste sinks

Ghost Towns and Zombie Mines: The Historical Dimensions of Mine Abandonment, Reclamation, and Redevelopment in the Canadian North

In the past two decades a new approach to mining history has emerged to ask, in effect, what happens after the gold rush. Authors such as Richard V. Francaviglia, Ben Marsh, William Wyckoff, and more recently David Robertson have all extended their narratives beyond the demise of mining towns to question what they consider to be the “mining imaginary,” the idea that the historical end-point for mining activity is inevitably community collapse and ecological destruction. They provide valuable case studies where communities have survived past the end of mining, diversifying their economies through industrial activity or the development of tourism. Historical memory often provides a sense of continuity for these communities, as mining heritage landscapes and museums become touchstones of tourist activity, and ecological restoration activities reveal a deep sense of attachment to the mining landscape. For this loosely defined community resilience school of mining history, mining is not an ephemeral economic activity but offers communities a long-term sense of deep intimacy with their history of labour within the local landscape

Toxic Legacies, Slow Violence, and Environmental Injustice at Giant Mine, Northwest Territories

For fifty years (1949–99) the now-abandoned Giant Mine in Yellowknife emitted arsenic air and water pollution into the surrounding environment. Arsenic pollution from Giant Mine had particularly acute health impacts on the nearby Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), who were reliant on local lakes, rivers, and streams for their drinking water, in addition to frequent use of local berries, garden produce, and medicine plants. Currently, the Canadian government is undertaking a remediation project at Giant Mine to clean up contaminated soils and tailings on the surface and contain 237,000 tonnes of arsenic dust that are stored underground at the Giant Mine. Using documentary sources and statements of Yellowknives Dene members before various public hearings on the arsenic issue, this paper examines the history of arsenic pollution at Giant Mine as a form of “slow violence,” a concept that reconfigures the arsenic issue not simply as a technical problem, but as a historical agent of colonial dispossession that alienated an Indigenous group from their traditional territory. The long-term storage of arsenic at the former mine site means the effects of this slow violence are not merely historical, but extend to the potentially far distant future

Pollution, Local Activism, and the Politics of Development in the Canadian North

This article addresses the often ignored history of Indigenous responses to environmental pollution. Focusing on resistance to arsenic pollution from Giant Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Sandlos and Keeling explore how Indigenous communities mobilized knowledge around environmental pollution, conducting their own studies when government research minimized or ignored their concerns about the health impacts of pollution, participating in public hearings, and continuing to push for research into the long-term health effects even after the mine closed. The authors show how this resistance to environmental racism is connected to other Indigenous struggles over industrial development and to issues such as land claims, sovereignty, and colonial dispossession

Rethinking remediation: Mine reclamation, environmental justice, and relations of care

To date, research on mine remediation in North America has focused primarily on technical management; relatively less is known about the historical, political and social dimensions of remediation. Remediation, as a continuation of the mining process, alters local landscapes and economies and can be both dangerous and beneficial for surrounding communities. Because remediation projects tend to focus on the technical aspects of clean-up, such projects risk overlooking the environmental injustices associated with past development and obscuring blame or responsibility from industry and government for environmental degradation. Insofar as it is understood as cleaning up or repairing environmental damage, remediation is generally seen as “doing the good” and is less amenable to political or ethical challenges based on community concerns or values. This paper argues that greater attention needs to be paid to public participation and justice concerns associated with cleaning up mine sites. Drawing from the literatures on ecological restoration, environmental justice, reconciliation, discard studies, and matters of care, we highlight critical, yet overlooked issues in the remediation of post-mining landscapes. We argue that remediation projects present a unique opportunity for the negotiation and articulation of morals, values, histories, and physical experiences associated with mine sites and we seek to re-frame remediation as an ongoing, creative process of community healing

Cleaning up Cosmos: Satellite Debris, Radioactive Risk, and the Politics of Knowledge in Operation Morning Light

In the early morning of January 24, 1978, the nuclear-powered Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 crashed on the barrens of the Northwest Territories. The crash dispersed radioactive debris in a wide trajectory across northern Canada, with multiple communities falling within the debris field.The lengthy clean-up that followed was shaped by government understandings of the northern environment as mediated through authoritative science and technology. This authority was to be challenged from the very beginning of Operation Morning Light. Constant technological failures under northern environmental conditions only increased the uncertainty already inherent in determining radioactive risk. Communication of this risk to concerned northerners was further complicated by language barriers in the predominantly Indigenous communities affected. Although Operation Morning Light was shaped by uncertainties, archival records of this clean-up are still ultimately defined by government narratives of scientific authority, narratives which leave little room for the concerns of affected Indigenous communities

Integrating socio-economic objectives for mine closure and remediation into impact assessment in Canada

Background: the issue The cyclical and volatile nature of resource economies means that particular extraction sites may be subject to sudden closure and abandonment, often leaving behind considerable social and environmental problems. There are an estimated 10,000 or more abandoned mines across Canada, ranging from small workings to large, complex post-industrial sites. Two federal Auditor General’s reports (2002 and 2012) highlighted abandoned mines as being among Canada’s most toxic sites, representing major public liabilities in the billions of dollars. In addition to these legacy sites, the many current and planned mineral developments across Canada’s northern mining belt are forecast to close in the coming two decades. Mine closure regulation and assessment practices vary widely across Canada, particularly surrounding socio-economic impacts. Typically, closure and remediation receive scant attention during the impact assessment phase of major mineral development projects, with the focus instead placed on mitigating the initial ecological and social impacts of development and operations. Public assessments and reviews of closure and remediation plans for active mines (where they occur) rarely include Indigenous knowledge, values or land uses as part of setting remediation goals and standards. In the context of both historical, ongoing, and anticipated mineral development activities in Canada, a better understanding of the state of knowledge surrounding the role and practice of impact assessment for mine closure and remediation is required. This emphasis on mine closure and reclamation (rather than mineral development proposals more generally) reflects the particular knowledge and policy challenges associated with this final (and frequently longest) phase of the mining cycle, including: addressing long-term environmental and social impacts; financial securities for post-closure liabilities; post-remediation monitoring and relinquishment of closed sites; and the often complicated regulatory arrangements surrounding operating versus abandoned mines. In addition, while the majority of impact assessments (IA) occur at the front end of large-scale mining projects and do not include detailed discussions or evaluations of closure and remediation, in recent years some high-profile mine remediation projects have themselves been subject to full IA reviews. Objectives This Knowledge Synthesis Report investigates and illuminates the gaps in environmental and social impact assessment practices for mine closure and remediation. In particular, we assess: i) whether and how mine closure and remediation are incorporated into environment and impact assessment processes (in Canada); ii) public participation and oversight of mine closure and remediation (through environment and impact assessment processes); and iii) the various regulations, policies, and practices of mine closure and remediation, as reflected in actual closure plan documents. To understand the state of knowledge related to these issues, we undertook a systematic literature review (Section 3) using major scientific databases to identify and assess studies related to mine remediation, public participation, and impact assessment. Second, we undertook a review of mine closure plans (Section 4), with a focus on major mining developments in the Canadian North, to analyse how they have undergone regulatory review or environmental assessment, and consider how they incorporate community engagement, socioeconomic impacts, and Indigenous participation in remediation planning. Finally, we summarize and link the results of these analyses and discuss their implications for both environmental assessment and mine closure and remediation. Methodology and results: The systematic literature review (Section 3) entailed a targeted search through over 20 databases encompassing environmental studies, policy studies, anthropology, sociology, dissertation and thesis catalogues, and other grey literature. In addition, a database of ‘known’ or familiar literature was compiled by the researchers and reviewed using the same screening protocol as our systematic search. Search strings focused on a range of terms related to public engagement, mining, remediation, and environmental assessment. The search and screening process yielded a total of 14 sources for detailed synthesis and analysis. The lack of common research design among the studies reviewed suggests the topic and field of study is fragmented. Analysis of both the systematic review and ‘known’ literature demonstrates that much of the potentially relevant research does not directly address impact assessment, closure, and community engagement, but rather focuses on one of those three topics, with passing or contextual mentions of the others. The closure plan review (Section 4) entailed a qualitative comparison of closure plans from mines operating in Yukon (1), the Northwest Territories (3), Nunavut (3), Nunavik (2), and Labrador (1) (see Table 4). Instead of examining closure plans from all provinces and territories, these five regions were chosen due to the inconsistent availability of closure plans across Canada. In addition to evaluating the accessibility of these plans for public scrutiny, these closure plans were systematically assessed based on the evidence of public engagement; inclusion and use of community knowledge; acknowledgement of socio-economic impacts of closure; and plans to mitigate impacts. These practices vary widely between closure plans and jurisdictions, but in general public, consultation and engagement of community knowledge and social impacts in closure planning are vague and inconsistent. There does not appear to be a clear relationship between impact assessment processes and closure plans, and there are significant gaps in the policies governing both. Key messages ● mine closure and remediation is often the longest and most complex phase of the mining cycle, yet receives the least attention during project assessment and approval ● the long-term, even perpetual nature of post-mining impacts is a major sustainability challenge and contributes to cumulative impacts in extractive regions ● the mitigation of social impacts of mine closure and remediation is poorly addressed in closure and remediation policy ● community engagement and public scrutiny of closure plans, including during the project assessment phase, is crucial to equitable and effective closure and remediation practice ● particular attention is required to the legacies of mining and mine remediation for Indigenous communities in the context of settler colonial relations and more recent practices related to negotiated agreements ● future research is required to integrate and enhance knowledge of these issues and to make recommendations for impact assessment and closure policy and practic

There Is a Monster under the Ground: Commemorating the History of Arsenic Contamination at Giant Mine as a Warning to Future Generations

This paper analyzes a community-based project to communicate toxic dangers to future generations at Giant Mine, an abandoned gold mine near Yellowknife. Since 2013, the authors have worked with community groups, government, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to develop a strategy for communicating the arsenic hazards at Giant Mine to future generations. Our experience suggests that any communication strategy must commemorate the multiple ways different constituents have known the mine. We also argue that any program to commemorate hazards for future generations can be a useful tool to address painful memories of historical environmental injustices associated with mine pollution

Living Within the Earth’s Carrying Capacity: Reflections from Memorial University

This report is a result of an interdisciplinary discussion among graduate students from various disciplines at Memorial University that took place on April 24, 2020. The key messages and discussion points emerged from the workshop were: • We should rethink “carrying capacity” to include multi-species collectives. That is, carrying capacity should move away from its anthropocentric focus to account for non-human beings, including technology. We question the utility of ecological metaphors such as “survival of the fittest” in describing the social world and suggest we redirect our attention towards a more mutualistic society. • Translating this new way of thinking about carrying capacity as a multi-species collective into policy requires moving away from a focus on individual behaviors to redesigning the economic system and ensuring sound and effective governance. We identified capitalism and flawed governance systems as some of the main barriers for “living within the earth’s carrying capacity”, while recognizing that reimagining these is a complex, but important, challenge. • Lastly, we recognize and appreciate the variety of ways in which different disciplines use and respond to issues of “carrying capacity”. The group identified cross-sectorial and interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing as a great opportunity to understand and mitigate human impacts on earth

“We Are Scholars”: Using Teamwork and Problem-Based Learning in a Canadian Regional Geography Course

This pedagogical reflection recounts the implementation of a team-based and problem-based learning format in a regional geography of Canada course at a Canadian university. Regional geography courses, popular in many collegiate geography departments, often rely on the “transmission” mode of learning, which relies on the presentation of factual information about regions and its recitation in examinations. This format tends to reify existing regional divisions, whether political or otherwise, and makes it difficult for students to comprehend the dynamic, historical and constructed nature of regions. Team-based and problem-based learning was deployed in this third-year course to enliven and enrich the study of regional geography through the use of learning groups which produced regular research products during a series of thematic modules. Based on student feedback and the instructor’s reflections, the article highlights key benefits of teamwork in terms of learning outcomes and student personal development