The South Nahanni River defies description. It is one of the most spectacular lengths of runnable river in the world. It lies in the southwestern corner of Canada's Northwest Territories and offers one of the more accessible wilderness adventures in the Arctic. Canoeing the Nahanni should be on everyone's lifetime to-do list. The waterfalls at right are twice the height of Niagara. Today it's in the news because the Canadian government has, after years of dragging its feet, agreed to expand the park that encompasses it by 5,400 square kilometres, a move that will help protect the river from future development. Or so says Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But there's a catch.
As I wrote five years ago, this World Heritage Site lies next door to an zinc mining operation under development, an activity that represents an abrogation of Canada's obligations under the World Heritage Site provisions. This week's expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve goes a way toward meeting those obligations, but just happens to exclude the Prairie Creek mine site. That's not enough, and Canadian's shouldn't be satisfied with inadequate conservation measures.
Here's the way the CBC sums up the problem:
An expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve announced this week by the prime minister has left proponents wondering how the park can co-exist with a nearby zinc mine -- a case even Stephen Harper acknowledged makes for strange neighbours.
Plus ça change. Here's my 2002 story, which appeared in News/North, a weekly that covers the NWT.
Yellowknife (Feb 18/02) - A zinc mine just outside the Nahanni National Park Reserve would probably not be approved if Ottawa lived up to its international obligations, according to a new report by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board.
Though it gave conditional approval last week to a pilot mining project 32 kilometres upstream of the northern border of the park, the board says Canadian Zinc's plans are likely to have "significant adverse impact on the environment."
Among the most troubling elements of the project identified by experts from Indian and Northern Affairs, Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada, among other reviewers, is a 20-year-old tailings pond.
If its retaining walls fail, the pond could spill millions of litres of contaminated water into Prairie Creek, wiping out vulnerable populations of bull trout and despoiling the pristine South Nahanni River, which sees hundreds of canoeists paddle each year.
The report also points out that as a UN World Heritage Site, the park needs better protection than it currently enjoys, specifically buffer zones forbidding development.
If the Nahanni had such buffer zones, says Louie Azzolini, a consultant for the review board, the mine "might be not allowed."
According to UN rules for heritage sites, the boundaries "should include sufficient areas immediately adjacent to the area of outstanding universal value in order to protect the site's heritage values from direct effects of human encroachment and impacts of resource use outside of the nominated area."
The review board also found that, "when the government of Canada accepted and put Nahanni National Park forward as a candidate World Heritage Site, it was aware of the possible future need to protect the features which contributed to that status."
Parks Canada, which is mandated to protect the "ecological integrity" of the park, has long been aware of the discrepancy.
Ever since the park was established at then prime minister Pierre Trudeau's insistence 30 years ago to forestall hydroelectric dams, officials have recognized the inadequacies of the current border. But proposals to increase the park's protected area were put on hold with the advent of Deh Cho land claims.
Many scientists believe that adequate protection for the park and its wildlife would mean setting aside the entire greater South Nahanni watershed, which is seven times the size of the park itself.
In a letter to the review board on a separate development review, Parks Canada park supervisor Chuck Blyth wrote: "the majority of the waters flowing through the park originate outside its borders, and any upstream activities do have the potential to impact water quality in the park."
And a public workshop in Fort Simpson two years ago, First Nations leaders, biologists and land managers agreed that the protection of the entire watershed "met most tests of ecological integrity."
The Deh Cho First Nations and the federal government have tentatively agreed to withdraw much of the watershed from future development, according to DCFN and federal negotiators.
A land withdrawal agreement could be completed this year, but exceptions will likely be made for existing projects, including the CanTung tungsten mine just north of the park -- where 23,000 litres of diesel fuel were spilled just weeks after mining commenced in December -- and the Prairie Creek mine.
"Those areas are not going to be affected by the land-withdrawal process," says chief federal negotiator Robin Aitken.
That means the only way Canada can live up to its UN commitment would be to expropriate both mines, a move that could potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
So far, however, Ottawa has sent mixed signals on the park's future, with Parks Canada pursuing one strategy and Indian and Northern Affairs another. In its report, the review board refers to "conflicting land use and management policy currently being provided by the government of Canada" and warns that "unalterable land use decisions may result in significant adverse impacts."
Those kind of comments are welcomed by groups working to turn the park reserve into a fully protected ecosystem. "I think the board has gone a long way, compared with past decisions, to addressing the big picture of ecological protection," says Greg Yeoman of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's NWT branch.
Both Yeoman and Kevin O'Reilly of the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee say the mine is a threat to the park.
"This is clearly a mine that should not be put into production," adds O'Reilly.
CanZinc officials, however, are confident that, with the mitigating changes recommended by the board, the mine will be safe. "We've said we're going to go through with those things and that's what we're going to do," says president Malcolm Swallow.
Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Robert Nault must approve the board's report before its recommendations become binding.
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