Sixteen lakes across Canada are set to be quietly reclassified as allowable areas for mines to dump toxic waste. While Canadian law technically disallows chucking harmful substances into fish habitat, lakes can be reclassified as “tailings impoundment areas” under a little-known subsection of mining effluent regulations. With a lake at their disposal (literally), mining companies avoid the cost and trouble of building containment ponds for their muck. Besides, lakes are peachy for waste disposal, says Elizabeth Gardiner of Canada’s Mining Association: “[W]ith this kind of topography and this number of natural lakes and depressions and ponds … in the end it’s really the safest option for human health and for the environment.”
