Chris Spearman welcomes premier's ban on surface mining at Grassy Mountain
Water For Food spokesman offers questions for added clarification on reversal of rules for Northback and other Eastern Slopes coal mining
CONCERNS AND REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATIONS :
GRASSY MOUNTAIN COAL PROJECT AND NEW COAL POLICY FOR ALBERTA
AN OPEN LETTER
May 20, 2025
Dear Premier Smith,
Water For Food welcomes your clear commitment stated on your official radio show this past weekend that Northback will not be permitted to undertake open-pit, strip or mountain-top removal mining at Grassy Mountain.
“When it comes to coal mining, people do not want to see mountaintop removal,” she said. “People do not want to see strip mining.
“They’re concerned that when you do that, it exposes the rock face to when it rains and selenium gets into the water system -- so we’ve put a policy into place.
“You can’t do these things. You can’t do open pit mining and you can’t do strip mining -- but if you can find techniques that allow you to do new underground mining, then we’re going to be open to approving those projects.”
The purpose of this letter is to seek replies to longstanding concerns and clarifications on statements that have been made by you and your ministers regarding the Grassy Mountain Coal Project and the proposed new Coal Policy for Alberta.
Here is a summary of our primary issues:
Type of mining to take place at Grassy Mountain
Reliance on the Alberta Energy Regulator for Enforcement
Coal Policy consultation process
Decisions and Agreements are being made unilaterally
Respect for the law and due process
Opening all of the Eastern Slopes in order to avoid legal challenges
The Business Case
Water Availability
1. TYPE OF MINING TO TAKE PLACE AT GRASSY MOUNTAIN
The first topic for clarification is the type of mining that you understand will take place at Grassy Mountain.
At the December 20, 2024 media conference announcing the new coal policy, Energy Minister Brian Jean clearly confirmed that Grassy Mountain would be an open pit mine.
On your weekly radio show Your Province Your Premier, on Saturday January 25, 2025 you stated that Grassy Mountain would not be an open pit mine.
If you are referring to what is generically referred to in CIMI as surface mining or high wall mining, that category of mining is just another type of open pit mining, with the same degree of risk in the southwestern Alberta environment where volatile Chinook winds are prevalent. Wind blown coal dust and selenium seepage will still be a serious issue using any mining techniques.
While open pit mining is the preferred process for mining companies due to efficiency, if we accept your statement that open pit mining will not be employed, the usual alternative is underground mining and tunnels. In that case, rock material will be excavated, piled and accumulated causing similar risks as open pit mines.
Could you please confirm exactly which process is being considered by Northback for the Grassy Mountain site?
We keep hearing buzzwords like high wall mining. This sounds very much like new words for open pit mining with all the same risks of selenium seepage and wind blown coal dust. Are you aware of the intensity of Chinook winds in Southern Alberta?
Northback has refused to provide answers to my concerns for more than 8 months.
Our Alberta Government seems similarly unable to respond with credible evidence that a coal mine operated by Northback at Grassy Mountain can be operated without significant harm to our water and ecosystem.
The Alberta government’s own research reports validate our concerns.
Under these conditions, no coal projects near the eastern slopes and the headwaters of the Oldman River should proceed.
2. RELIANCE ON ALBERTA ENERGY REGULATOR FOR ENFORCEMENT
Our second concern is the reliance on the Alberta Energy Regulator, which is entirely funded by industry, to enforce strict environmental and land use standards.
Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz has said that the Alberta Energy Regulator will use the five Alberta government scientific reports completed by her department as a guide.
Those reports confirm extensive selenium contamination would occur as a result, in the same way it does in coal mines already operating in Alberta and nearby in B.C.
Our concern is that this approach is focussed on AER monitoring. There have been multiple reports that AER monitoring is ineffective, the most recent being an article in Globe and Mail on January 6, 2025.
This suggests that the AER monitoring program is understaffed and under-resourced.
In addition, in Alberta while we have regulations, they are enforced like guidelines.
How will the Alberta Energy Regulator enforce toothless guidelines?
Strangely, our Alberta government’s Coal Mine Wastewater Guidelines say nothing about selenium. There are no guidelines for mitigating selenium pollution downstream of mines.
We believe that a focus exclusively on monitoring will not be sufficient and not appropriate.
Our reading of the five Alberta government research based studies is that they confirm that excessive selenium contamination will definitely occur based on what has already occurred at existing coal mining sites.
The contamination concentrations will be higher here due to the volatile and unpredictable Chinook wind conditions.
When our headwaters and the Oldman River are excessively contaminated, AER monitoring will do nothing to alleviate the situation.
And as you already know, there is no known technology available to remove enough selenium from the water.
The only way to prevent a catastrophe is to prevent coal mining at the outset, not by monitoring after the damage has already been done.
Municipal engineers tell us that there is no known technology for removing excess selenium from river water at water treatment plants to create potable water for drinking, cooking and food processing in water treatment plants.
We have asked Northback to provide an example of a municipal location where excess selenium has been successfully removed using water treatment processes.
They have been unable to do so.
As you can understand, this will be a serious issue for the 200,000 people living and working in the Oldman River basin.
Can you please confirm that our Alberta government has done its due diligence and can provide examples of comparable sized municipalities where excess selenium has been successfully removed using water treatment processes?
3. COAL POLICY CONSULTATION PROCESS
The next issue we would like to address is the Coal Policy consultation process.
Historically, and very currently, more than 70% of Albertans are opposed to coal mining in the Rockies and Headwaters.
Most of the coal resources in the area are owned by the Crown and our
Alberta government are the steward of those resources, on behalf of Albertans.
Albertans previously expressed frustration about the lack of prior consultation when the Alberta government led by Jason Kenney revoked the 1976 coal policy without any prior consultation with Albertans.
Now Energy Minister Brian Jean appears to be doing exactly the same thing.
When the new Coal Industry Modernization Initiative was announced by Ministers Jean and Schulz on December 20, 2024, Minister Jean spoke only of consulting on the development of the policy with the coal industry. There was zero mention of consulting with ordinary Albertans or with indigenous people, municipalities or other industries (such as the agricultural sector) or other stakeholders.
The Minister’s correspondence that we received on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 continues to say that our Alberta government will consult exclusively with the coal industry.
Can you please explain to Albertans why foreign owned companies, most of whom were not operating in Alberta ten years ago, have usurped the rights of the Albertans who own most of the the coal resources?
Isn’t consultation exclusively with the coal companies a direct conflict of interest?
And isn’t consultation without including indigenous people a violation of their Treaty Rights?
4. DECISIONS AND AGREEMENTS ARE BEING MADE UNILATERALLY
A similar issue is that Minister Jean appears to be making decisions and agreements regarding coal mining irresponsibly and unilaterally - which could have financial consequences for Albertans.
Minister Jean acknowledged that Alberta has one of the lowest coal royalty rates and Minister Jean stated that these rates will remain in place for existing projects, including Grassy Mountain. There is no evidence that Minister Brian Jean consulted with Albertans before he made these decisions.
Let’s be clear that Grassy Mountain is not an advanced project and that Minister Jean has erred.
It is a project that was rejected by the joint federal provincial panel on the basis that the risks far exceeded the benefits. The joint federal provincial panel decision was challenged in the courts by the proponent and the case was lost each time.
The Grassy Mountain Coal Project continues to be listed on the Alberta government’s website today as “terminated”, not as “advanced”, as Minister Jean claims.
Cancelled projects are explicitly stated by the proponent to be cancelled.
How was Grassy Mountain determined to be an advanced project when we know it clearly is not?
As the proponent themselves, Northback, has stated the Grassy Mountain Coal Project is terminated or canceled, Northback must be made to resubmit a new application to operate the mine. No further consideration should be provided for exploration applications until this new application is submitted. Additionally, this new application must be materially different from the original application which was rejected more than 4 years ago to ensure there is no duplication of work for the AER and citizens.
This new application must also be subject to the new CIMI and must address the issues regarding water contamination which were not adequately resolved in their original application.
5. RESPECT FOR THE LAW AND DUE PROCESS
The Benga/Northback application for an open pit coal mine at Grassy Mountain was denied by the joint Federal Provincial Panel in June 2021 on the basis that the benefits of the project were far out-weighed by the risks.
The panel found that the benefits touted by the proponent and the risk mitigations were not credible.
After the application was denied by the joint panel, Northback appealed the decision three times in the courts and lost all three times.
After losing in the court system, the proponent changed the status of the project to cancelled on the government website.
There are multiple reports in the media that Northback then allegedly entered into a process of back door lobbying with government ministers.
It would seem that Northback was seeking to achieve politically what it could not achieve by due process.
To allow that to occur and be successful undermines the faith and confidence Albertans have in due process and the rule of law.
Premier Smith, Northback has not publicly addressed the issues that led to the denial of their original application.
What is our Alberta governments rationale for allowing Northback’s Grassy Mountain application to proceed, in contradiction to legal decisions and due process.
6. OPENING ALL OF THE EASTERN SLOPES IN ORDER TO AVOID LEGAL CHALLENGES
Our next issue in need of clarification for Albertans is our Alberta government’s decision to open all of the Eastern slopes to mining in order to avoid legal challenges in the courts by the industry.
Section 8(1)(b) of the Mines and Minerals Act provides the Minister with the power to acquire by expropriation [pursuant to the Expropriation Act] any estate or interest in minerals, if the Minister is of the opinion that any further exploration for or development of those minerals is not in the public interest.
Section 8(1)(c) of the Act allows the Minister to cancel or refuse to renew an agreement as to all or part of the location when this of the opinion that any further exploration or development of the mineral is not in the public interest, subject to the payment of compensation pursuant to the Mineral Rights Compensation Regulation.
With these legal avenues in place to protect the public interest, how is the rushed decision to open up vast sections of the Rockies and Eastern Slopes to coal mining, not considered incompetence?
7. THE BUSINESS CASE
The Grassy Mountain Coal Project has an expected life of between 23 and 25 years. It is expected to create 400 new jobs.
This economic development projection ignores the harm we can expect
to be inflicted on the existing integrated Agrifood economy of 200,000 people and communities in the Oldman River basin, based on our Alberta governments own scientific research studies.
8. WATER AVAILABILITY
Concerns have been expressed by many about the unreliability of water supply.
Coal mines use huge volumes of water.
We live in drought conditions in the south and rely on timely rains and extensive irrigation to sustain a multi billion dollar integrated agrifood economy.
Water use is carefully allocated.
When coal mines become operational, that will substantially reduce water available for farmers, ranchers, livestock operators, food processors and communities downstream.
We can expect substantial negative impacts on the integrated agrifood economy of Southern Alberta.
CONCLUSION
We would appreciate careful attention to our requests for clarification and prompt answers, so we can share them with Albertans who own most of the coal resources of the province.
The Water For Food Group does not view this as right versus left issue.
We view this as a right versus wrong issue.
The Grassy Mountain Coal Project, coal mining in the proximity of the Eastern slopes and coal mining in the Alberta Rockies is the wrong decision for Alberta.
As you know, in 2019, the UCP government of Jason Kenney was elected.
In 2021 when our Alberta government decided they would be opening up the Alberta Rockies to coal mining, Albertans rebelled and made it clear that their decision was not acceptable.
Mr. Kenney’s government recognized that they did not have a mandate to proceed, and they backed down to appease Albertans.
Even your Energy Minister Brian Jean agreed at the time and offered pointed advice in published Op-Eds, at the time.
Today, we have a similar situation.
In the election campaign of 2023, the UCP did not disclose their intention to revisit the coal issue.
You also do not have a mandate to proceed.
If coal mines in the Alberta Rockies on or near the Eastern Sopes is a priority for ourAlberta government, please end the chaos and call an election to get a mandate from Albertans to proceed.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Nitsikimmapiiyipitsi
Chris Spearman
Spokesperson
Water For Food Group