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High Lake Mine Pre-Hearing Conference December 5-7, 2007 Kugluktuk, Nunavut

Health Canada Santé Canada. High Lake Mine Pre-Hearing Conference December 5-7, 2007 Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Carolyn Dunn Environmental Assessment Division Healthy Environments Consumer Safety Branch Health Canada. Health Canada Santé Canada. Health Canada Role.

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High Lake Mine Pre-Hearing Conference December 5-7, 2007 Kugluktuk, Nunavut

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  1. Health Canada Santé Canada High Lake Mine Pre-Hearing Conference December 5-7, 2007 Kugluktuk, Nunavut Carolyn DunnEnvironmental Assessment DivisionHealthy Environments Consumer Safety BranchHealth Canada

  2. Health Canada Santé Canada Health Canada Role • HC provides expert information or knowledge to the Nunavut Impact Review Board and Responsible Authorities regarding the potential impacts of the mine on human health, thereby improving the quality of the environmental assessment • HC is not a regulator and is not making any decisions on the High Lake mine. • HC was unable to attend the technical meeting so our technical comments will be quickly summarized here. 2

  3. Health Canada Santé Canada High Lake Mine Health Canada Technical Topics • Noise • Air Quality • Country Foods and Contaminants 3

  4. Health Canada Santé Canada Noise Monitoring • HC recommends that the proponent keep sound levels below 30dBA (as per the World Health Organisation) in workers' sleeping quarters, where economically and technically feasible. If needed, mitigation (i.e, noise barriers) should be applied to keep sleeping quarters quiet. 4

  5. Health Canada Santé Canada Air Quality • The predicted levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are a health concern, since they are well over the threshold (Canada Wide Standard). Since workers will be resident at the site, they should be treated as a local population. • Diesel combustion is the major source of PM2.5 at the site, and is considered to have important health effects. • The mitigation measures identified appear to be inadequate, considering the level of exceedance (i.e., almost 14 times at the maximum predicted ground level) of the PM2.5 levels. • Further mitigation to reduce PM2.5 levels is needed. 5

  6. Health Canada Santé Canada Country Foods and Contamination • As shown in the EIS, baseline levels of methylmercury in fish may be a concern for local Inuit toddlers and women. Any increase in mercury deposition from the mining operations will increase the risk associated with methylmercury consumption. While mercury deposition from the mine is expected to be minimal, monitoring of mercury in fish tissue as required by the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations will provide assurances that levels of methylmercury in fish do not increase as a result of the mine. • Metals in dust along the road, affecting lichen (and caribou that humans consume), may be a concern, therefore monitoring is needed. 7

  7. Health Canada Santé Canada Pre-Hearing Conference Issues • Issues to be dealt with at the final public hearing include human health, especially noise, air quality and country foods. • HC requests further assessment of PM2.5, as part of the FEIS • HC prefers if the final public hearing takes place preferably during one work week, 3 months after submission of the FEIS. The location chosen should have sufficient public accommodations available for the participants from each organization. • HC suggests separate technical and non-technical/community parts of the final hearing, to ensure effective community consultation. 8

  8. The End - thanks for your time Questions?

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