The Jane Basin mine site, circa 1915. The plan would turn the mine site into a landfill for non-hazardous industrial wastes to effectively plug Britannia's open pits and thereby reduce the inflow of rainwater and outflow of acid mine drainage. It is now one of the eight parties listed by deputy director of Waste Management Ron Driedger as potentially responsible for the cleanup. After several months negotiating the legal vagaries of corporate successor liability and B.C.'s Waste Management Act, Driedger is expected to issue a new or amended remediation order next month, naming the parties responsible for cleaning up Britannia Mine. When potentially responsible parties are named they can submit to the waste management branch names of other companies or authorities that they believe should be included.
Some inclusions appear more tenuous than others.
Copper Beach is included because it has owned the site since 1979. The town of Britannia Beach as it looked in 1916. A flood wiped out the community on the banks of Britannia Creek in 1921, claiming 37 lives. Canzinco also named the B.C. government as responsible because of its regulatory role in the mine and its response to a flood in 1991, which allegedly exacerbated pollution at the site. Two months ago, Arco's lawyers filed a submission alleging that Intalco Aluminum Corporation, Alumax Inc. and Howmet Holdings Corporation are also responsible by virtue of being Alcoa's subsidiaries.