[thymebalm]

Originally Posted by Peanut

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned AMEC yet (the engineer of record for the dam). Or the engineering company who handled the dam prior to 2010, when AMEC took over.

The old engineering company, Knight Piésold Consulting, immediately distanced themselves from the project.

The CBC has an article on that here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...arge-1.2732314

"The original engineering done by Knight Piésold Ltd. accommodated a significantly lower water volume than the tailings storage facility reportedly held at the time of the breach," the company said in a statement posted Friday to its website.

...

Knight Piésold informed mine owners in a February 2011 letter it would not continue as the engineers of the tailings pond system, but its statement gave no reason why it made that decision.

In the letter, it noted, "The embankments and the overall tailings impoundment are getting large and it is extremely important that they be monitored, constructed and operated properly to prevent problems in the future."

Obviously KPC thought it was a safe bet to distance themselves from whatever the operating policy at that mine was.

As far as AMEC is concerned there is this article in the Financial Post:

Investigations at or near the dam breach at Mount Polley are prohibited because of safety concerns, said Amec Plc, the engineering company that has been working on the dam. Construction work was being undertaken to complete Amec’s design for the dam at the time of the accident, Lauren Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the London-based company, said yesterday in an e-mail.

...

Robertson said the pond and dam were operating within the parameters of the original design at the time of the accident.

“There’s a lot of speculation about what happened,” he said. “At this point we cannot speculate.”

Maybe nobody on the forum has addressed it specifically, but I sure hope you aren't using the posts here as your primary source of information. A quick google would get you what we know so far.

The old firm ditched the company with concerns, and the new firm is under the belief that the pond with within the parameters of the original design. The ministry of environment had warned Imperial Metals several times that their tailings were getting high, it is not known if AMEC, a firm based out of England, was aware of this when their statement was made.

I don't think there's much weight to campaign contributions and liberal support dating since 2012 from Edwards and Imperial Metals. The dam was designed and built long before that.v And I think it takes a lot more than a few thousand bucks Christy Clark's way to get international and national dam engineering codes and standards "relaxed". If that even happened. Which would be easy enough to investigate with some googling but I don't particularly care to, because I doubt it did.

a few thousand? A million is a thousand thousand. And Edwards raised that for Clark in a single night. You can count a few on your hand, like "I just have to run to the store and grab a few things, you know, coffee, cigarettes, vaseline, and... something else, but I forget what." Unless you have a thousand fingers on your hand, that is the most obnoxious use of the word few I've read in a long time.

And you really should google it, because your gut-check was off on this one.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/08/09/Im...onetary-Gifts/

Inspections drop

For now, IntegrityBC's Travis argues that it is "incumbent" on the government to disclose all of its communications with Imperial Metals so the public can ensure there was no conflict of interest or regulatory favours -- particularly as the donations coincide with cuts to inspections over the years.

As The Tyee reported on Thursday, since the BC Liberals took office in 2001, mine inspections plummeted by nearly half in the province. In a 2010 internal memo, a senior environment ministry engineer warned that staff cuts would lead to "negative results, which in the field of dam safety are represented by dam failures," and called for increased funding and a more consistent approach to dam inspections, since the oversight of tailings impoundments is delegated to the mines ministry.

According to the Chief Inspector of Mines' annual reports, as the number of mine inspections dropped from 2,021 visits in 2001 to a decade-low of 309 in 2004, so too did the number of investigations pursued -- from 19 in 2001 to only three in 2004, an 84 per cent drop...

Next time, maybe just google it first. Because your ignorance is damaging an already tenuous debate at best.

...

A few personal updates:

1)I've decided to not contribute to the NHL or Calgary Flames financially for the time being. I have written a letter to them telling them so and explaining why I felt the need to do so. As others have suggested, I have addressed a similar version of the letter to Edwards himself.

2)For those of you who think my want for justice is misdirected, I won't say you are wrong. My assertion that Edwards should behave a certain way as an owner for the National Hockey League may not be justified. But when the league released the Sustainability Report that was a big deal to me. I thought, hey, the one sport I actually care about cares about me. They care about the place I grew up and they care about the planet we all share. I thought it was pretty damn cool that they were the first major sports league to address the climate this side of the pond. I'm just going to quote a chunk of it, because many of you may not have seen this report

For a number of years now, the League and our Clubs have been working together toward the common goal of greater sustainability. In 2010 we recognized that nearly all 30 of our Member Clubs and a significant number of our 700 players were already active in the pursuit of more sustainable business practices and environmentally-conscious lifestyles. NHL Green was our response to those efforts. The League then began to coordinate and focus all environmental efforts under the NHL shield, under one umbrella for the first time.

We believe that this effort is not only the right thing to do for the environment, but is also a core strategy for the long-term success of our League. We have a vested interest in this cause. As a business, we rely on freshwater to make our ice, on energy to fuel our operations and on healthy communities for our athletes, employees and fans to live, work and play. Moreover, to continue to stage world class outdoor hockey events like the NHL Winter Classic, NHL Heritage Classic or NHL Stadium Series, we need winter weather.

At the NHL, we recognize that we have great responsibility for the way we conduct our business. As our revenues, TV viewership and attendance continue to rise, we are acutely aware of our influence on culture and society, especially with today's youth. We have the power to promote, develop and support positive change.

3) I'm sticking around. (Unless I find out Bingo has the controlling shares in GoldCorp, that is...) And not just to talk envirolitics. I'm not ready to contribute to any Flames stuff, but I'm not going anywhere either. I guess I may have to start using that Off Topic forum after all. In fact, I would be more than fine if this topic made it was over there as well.

4) There was something else, but I forgot.