The Westwood Lab has published a new paper on Oxford Academic’s Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management journal, titled, “Boring into groundwater impact predictions of hard-rock mines in Canada reveals inconsistent modeling timelines, monitoring plans, and consideration of climate change.“, led by former lab Research Assistant Sugeet Miglani and including Dr. Alana Westwood and Ben Collison.
Their op-ed, “Fast-tracking mines at what expense?“, describes Canada’s growing demand for critical minerals to accelerate mine approvals, but concerns remain about the potential environmental and community impacts. The article highlights the importance of maintaining rigorous impact assessments to ensure that economic development and the clean energy transition do not come at the expense of water resources, ecosystems, and public trust. They connect the findings of the paper–that historically, impact assessment predictions for groundwater under federal legislation were low in scientific rigour–to the current context of the proposed Bill C-39. Bill C-39, currently working its way through Canada’s House of Commons and Senate, threatens to roll back impact assessment and permitting provisions to prior decades and leaves room for irreversible harm to the environment (including groundwater).
Dr. Westwood has been speaking out on this issue as part of the Canadian Society for Ecology & Evolution’s Policy Committee, whose concerns about Bill C-39 are in their press release. They also submitted briefs to the Senate and House of Commons suggesting amendments to the text of the bill.
For complete details on the project, you can visit the Mines, Mines and More Mines project page.
Sugeet Miglani & Dr. Alana Westwood and Ben Collison
