Letter: Rocky Mountain coal mining plans cause for serious concern

By Letter to the Editor on February 13, 2021.

Dear editor,

Good morning fellow Hatters! I’ve been following the ongoing news story about coal mining leases on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies with serious and growing concern.

Premier Jason Kenney and Energy Minister Sonja Savage of the UCP are currently hard at work trying to manage another hot potato called coal mining on the Eastern Slopes.

At the beginning, I think they just assumed they’d quietly rescind the existing 1976 coal mining policy, issue a few leases and start enjoying those big 1 per cent coal royalty cheques while patting themselves on the back. Surely Albertans would be too sleepy to notice the lack of public consultation and the long-term consequences to the environment and tourism.

Well guess what – Albertans are starting to notice and they’re not happy with these foolish, poorly thought-out plans.

It seems perfectly obvious to me, coal mining and tourism don’t work. Even more important though are the environmental and health issues.

Selenium is a byproduct of the coal mining process and will contaminate soil and water. Over the coming months, expect the UCP to tell us how strict environmental regulations, monitoring and technology will protect us from that risk! Don’t believe this. If you’re still not convinced and want to stick with the UCP’s proven history of truthfulness and transparency, look to the west and see how B.C. coal mining is doing. Keyword search “Coal mining consequence in B.C.” to access many hours of scary reading.

Numerous communities potentially impacted by the approval of coal mining leases have begun to push back. Water is the common denominator bringing these communities into the fight.

Closer to home, the South Saskatchewan River quietly passes through our city on its journey east. It’s formed by the junction of the Bow and Oldman rivers, the headwaters of which are in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Yes, the same place the mining is going to happen and the originator of the selenium I mentioned earlier.

I sure would like to hear how our city council is feeling about this and whether Medicine Hat will put some skin in the game.

Now’s a great time to ask our elected officials how they feel about this and what they intend to do to safe guard our health and help prevent this environmental nightmare about to happen to our Rocky Mountains.

Tom Simpson

Medicine Hat

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