The Ministry of Environment will be looking into concerns of effluent from the former Afton Mine leaching into Peterson Creek, according to the Kamloops Area Preservation Association.

KAPA hired a hydrogeologist for $4,000 to do a report in fall, which said the water quality in Peterson Creek is declining because of wasterock from the mine.

According to KAPA chair Paula Pick, the Ministry will be doing a review of effluent at the mine site in the new year, and will include consultation with Indigenous communities, local governments and stewardship groups in the area.

“We applaud the B.C. government’s positive response to our request; this is exactly the kind of Christmas present we were hoping for,” Pick says.

“Effluent from the Ajax Mine site has been leaching into the groundwater associated with Peterson Creek for over thirty years, and no monitoring of groundwater conditions has ever been required. It is long overdue for the government to include groundwater monitoring provisions in the permit,” she says.

According to the report done for KAPA in the fall, the size and scale of the amount of effluent leaking into Peterson Creek is not clear. It also says the permit for monitoring water quality is flawed, because it represents antiquated policies in the Mining Act – created in the late 1800s – which does not include the monitoring of groundwater.

The permit for monitoring the mine site is held by KGHM, which has proposed to revive plans for an open-pit Ajax gold and copper mine near Jacko Lake.

Peterson Creek flows from Jacko Lake through Knutsford, Sahali and downtown Kamloops into the Thompson River.