I heard that Teck dumped a bunch of mercury into the community last year so I looked it up in the government data and Teck "Trail Operations" was actually the worst in Canada.
I haven't seen anything about this online or in the news which is crazy? Like not even the local news?
Did aybody else hear about this?? I took a picture of the data so you can see its real. It's from the NPRI.
Town: Rossland, BC
Photos:
I looked at the NPRI stuff more and its "Trail Operations" AKA the smelter that is the #1 polluter. The most mercury in all of Canada dumped right into downtown Trail.
Why not get in touch with Teck and learn more about it? Ask some questions. Alarming inferences made from one set of data (which could be argued is incomplete) is misleading. The data does not include type of operation (smelter, mine, power plant, etc.) or release (accidental, annual, etc.). It wastes your time chasing assumptions not fully defined or explained. Emissions from a mine digging up rock can't be compared with a giant metallurgical operation using heat and other processes to pull pure metal from rock. Teck Trail Operations "is one of the world’s largest fully integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes". It is not only a primary lead/zinc smelter but also produces precious and specialty metals, chemicals, fertilizer products, etc. AND recycles CRT glass and other materials. However, your observation is not without merit; just don't stop there. Ask questions. Do some research. Understand this better.
As an aside, the next two emitters on the list are Sask Power coal fired generating plants. Worth noting, two generating units at one plant were retired from service in 2013 and 2014 due to federal rules on CO2 emissions. (Those work?) Sask Power is actively reducing its reliance on coal and in the meantime implementing sustainability practices such as Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), heating nearby greenhouses with waste steam/heat, etc.
Hopefully, the environmental oversight in Canada is creating an environment where industry can profitably function sustainably and is motivated to innovate.
Further to your post, it is important for companies to be transparent about emissions but publishing a list that omits the very important category of type and size of operation is somewhat irresponsible (of them, not you).
One of the NPRI tables that makes me chuckle is the lead (Pb) release by facility. Hamilton Gun Club is shown as the 2nd largest "lead release" facility in Canada; reportedly larger than any military base, larger than nearly every industrial site in Canada (Glencore Horne in QC notwithstanding).
To answer the initial question, it's not in the news because it's not... news? Mining/refining/producing primary metals is not an elegant process and is not without consequences.
I've little knowledge of stack emission science and their interaction with the environment/humans, but I would not be surprised if eating a can of tuna a week makes more impact to your blood mercury levels than the smelter stack.
Yes, there's very little context in that kind of data. Is that released all at once (i.e. a spill)? Is it out of a stack? Is it emitted through dust? It matters because things like mercury occur naturally. What's important is concentrations, and whether we're reaching concentrations that are toxic to our life, or that of our environment. And some things bio-accumulate, while others don't.
I would be curious to see the trend of release of mercury from Teck over the last 10-20 years. Hopefully it's getting better. But realistically Teck is probably releasing under what they are allowed, or they would be getting fined and that would be newsworthy.