Dear Editor:
The breach of the Mount Polly mine tailings pond has so far not shown to be as toxic as first feared.
What has gotten alarmists like myself upset is the naturally occurring sand, silt and mud that was carried with thousands of litres of water over the gravel beds of returning salmon.
Salmon eggs lie covered in gravel beds for protection.
If sand and mud have covered this area, the chances of egg survival is greatly diminished.
The environmental question is this: how many years of salmon runs will be lost before the gravel beds are clean again?
It takes only four years of continuing poor returns to cause a river’s salmon run to collapse.
Donald Grimway, Burnaby
