Communicating Danger : A Community Primer on Communicating the Arsenic Hazards at Yellowknife’s Giant Mine to Future Generations

摘要

The Giant Mine Remediation Plan proposes to freeze 237,000 tons of toxic arsenic trioxide dust where it is currently stored underground. It is likely that water pumping, monitoring, and maintenance at the site will be necessary for a very long time to prevent the arsenic from seeping into the local environment. The recent environmental assessment of the project requires ongoing research into a permanent solution to the arsenic problem at Giant Mine within a 100 year time frame. Despite this, a century is a very long time (people have forgotten about toxic sites over shorter periods), and there is no guarantee that technology can be developed to safely remove all arsenic from the site.