{"id":94211,"date":"2025-06-27T08:55:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=94211"},"modified":"2025-06-27T08:55:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T12:55:56","slug":"first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada&#8217;s National Observer More than a decade after the catastrophic collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam, a BC First Nation is back in court this week challenging the province\u2019s decision to approve expansion of a dam at the same mine. The 2014 collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine operated by Imperial Metals \u2014 sent a massive volume of mine waste into local lakes and rivers, causing widespread environmental damage from which the ecosystem is still recovering. Despite this history, the province recently approved an expansion of the dam at the site northeast of Williams Lake \u2014 allowing the tailings dam to be raised by four metres \u2014 from its current height of 60 metres. The&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F06%2F27%2Ffirst-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada&#8217;s National Observer More than a decade after the catastrophic collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam, a BC First Nation is back in court this week challenging the province\u2019s decision to approve expansion of a dam at the same mine. The 2014 collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine operated by Imperial Metals \u2014 sent a massive volume of mine waste into local lakes and rivers, causing widespread environmental damage from which the ecosystem is still recovering. Despite this history, the province recently approved an expansion of the dam at the site northeast of Williams Lake \u2014 allowing the tailings dam to be raised by four metres \u2014 from its current height of 60 metres. The... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F06%2F27%2Ffirst-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada&#8217;s National Observer More than a decade after the catastrophic collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam, a BC First Nation is back in court this week challenging the province\u2019s decision to approve expansion of a dam at the same mine. The 2014 collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine operated by Imperial Metals \u2014 sent a massive volume of mine waste into local lakes and rivers, causing widespread environmental damage from which the ecosystem is still recovering. Despite this history, the province recently approved an expansion of the dam at the site northeast of Williams Lake \u2014 allowing the tailings dam to be raised by four metres \u2014 from its current height of 60 metres. The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-27T12:55:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/27\\\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/27\\\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-27T12:55:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/27\\\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1019,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/27\\\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/27\\\/first-nation-battles-to-stop-history-repeating-at-mount-polley-mine\\\/\",\"name\":\"First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine - 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