Local group wins fight against Cogema

A small group consisting of Mennonites and members of First Nations has won its battle to nullify the operating licence of Cogema Resources’ McClean Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan. The future of the operation and its 178 employees is now in doubt.

A federal court judge in late September ruled in favour of the Inter-Church Uranium Committee Educational Co-operative and required Cogema to conduct an environmental-impact study of its uranium processing plant 700 km northeast of Saskatoon.

The mine has operating since 1998.

The facility underwent almost 10 years of environmental assessments and licensing reviews beginning in 1991 and has an excellent track record since it started to process uranium ore in 1999.

The court decision was a result of a judicial review of the project requested by the Saskatoon-based group, which called for a new assessment, citing a recent study that showed contaminants from uranium mining move faster in groundwater than was believed at the time the original assessments were done. The group says legislation introduced after the assessments of the mine began should apply to the facility.

“Our argument was that the Atomic Energy Control Board [now known as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission] should have triggered the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which requires an environmental assessment prior to such a licence being issued,” the inter-church group’s lawyer, Stefania Fortugno, told the Globe and Mail.

The act took effect in 1995.

The judge accepted the inter-church group’s argument that the nuclear safety commission should have ordered a new environmental assessment under the new act.

When uranium ore is dug, contaminants such as arsenic are brought up. Toxic chemicals are also added to the radioactive ore as part of the extraction process, leaving 80-90% of the radioactivity behind in the tailings pit.

Cogema is appealing the decision and has asked that the facilities at McClean Lake remain open during the appeal process.