Landowners who stand to be directly affected by coal mining have had their own study done on water quantity and water quality in the area.

Bobbi Lambright with the Livingstone Landowners Group says the conclusions were no great surprise.

"Clearly (they) pointed to the enormous risk to the headwaters and to the environment as these proposed coal projects proceed on the eastern slopes."

The group was disappointed that it had to bring in a third-party scientific group to do the study, believing the provincial government should have done it before ever considering opening up the area for mining.

“We have been deeply disturbed by the province’s decision to open up our headwaters to coal mining without undertaking any scientific evaluation or cumulative effects studies,” said John Lawson, a local rancher and member of the Livingstone Landowners Group Project Advisory Committee.

“We believe a thorough evaluation should have been done by government before coal mining was even considered, but since that didn't happen we are doing what we can to bring a scientific perspective to understanding the risks."

The LLG hired a group of researchers led by land ecologist Brad Stelfox to explore the consequences of different levels of coal mining (no mines, two mines, and eight mines over five decades) on water quality and quantity in the Old Man River watershed.

A group of six scientists with expertise ranging from hydrology to land ecology produced two reports.

One is a technical report on “changes in streamflow and water quality in the upper Oldman River watershed due to climate change and open-pit coal mining development."

The main report is by Brad Stelfox and Bill Donahue “assessing watershed-scale consequences of coal surface mines in the headwaters of the Oldman River Watershed.”

The report recommends that coal mining in the headwaters of the Oldman River Watershed not proceed.

 

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