Highland Valley Copper has run an experimental treatment program for many years, to use treated,
de-watered sewage sludge (biosolids) as a supplement to the capping of waste rock and tailings
materials before revegetation. This is an attempt to improve water retention on coarse-grained
materials, as well as provide a source of nutrients. In 2012, we used the 12-year remotely sensed
vegetation time series compiled by Teck and ASL to evaluate the effects of biosolids applications at
selected tailings and waste rock sites. The vegetation maps allowed us to compare rates of vegetation
change at a number of these treated areas with nearby untreated sites. Though our findings were
based on a rather small number of sites, we concluded that while the short-term effects of biosolids on
vegetation growth were site dependent, over the longer term (~10 years or more) there was a small,
positive effect at all sites, in the form of increased growth rates at biosolids treated sites relative to
nearby untreated sites.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe