Regulator says it’s now satisfied over PwC Ekati emulsion dump response

The Wek’èezhìı Land and Water Board says it’s satisfied “new procedures and systems are now in place” after accusing the Ekati diamond mine’s receiver of “direct non-compliance” at the site earlier this month.

In mid-August, the regulator said it had provided “clear direction” that receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) should not allow emulsion to be disposed of in a specific containment facility. Despite that, the WLWB alleged, PwC had carried on doing so.

The land and water board said it was summoning the territory’s environment minister to an urgent meeting and raised the prospect of possibly suspending the mine’s water licence, a key document without which a wide range of work at the site cannot occur.

In an update published to a public registry on Friday, the WLWB said a meeting had taken place on August 24 at which an understanding was reached.

The regulator also walked back an earlier complaint in which the WLWB said PwC had told it a territorial government inspector authorized the emulsion dumping. The WLWB said it now accepts no such authorization was given, but nevertheless issued a new call for “an increased inspector presence on site during this time of uncertainty.”

PwC was appointed by the GNWT to take over from Ekati’s owner as the site manager in July. The mine had run out of money and no buyer came forward in an earlier last-ditch bid to sell it.

So far, PwC has provided little by way of information about its approach to remediating the mine, which operated for almost three decades as a pillar of the NWT’s economy. The receiver’s website about its Ekati work is threadbare (sections for receiver’s reports and frequently asked questions contained nothing at the time of writing) and PwC has consistently declined to respond to enquiries, even when questions are referred to it by the GNWT.

However, regulatory registries allow some insight into the receiver’s workings.

The WLWB on Friday published an August 21 letter from PwC that outlined its response to the allegation it had chosen not to comply with an order to stop dumping emulsion in a specific area of Ekati.

“The disposal of decommissioned emulsion was the result of a regrettable gap in operational controls,” PwC wrote in its unsigned letter. “There was no deliberate disregard of the board’s direction and authority.”

While the WLWB had characterized that as “disposal of waste in the receiving environment,” PwC said all of the emulsion had been taken to a “managed waste and wastewater storage facility” separated from the broader environment and under continuous monitoring.

“Since the disposal issue was identified, the receiver has given written and verbal directions to the companies’ senior leadership that all water, wastewater and liquid movement across the site needs to be reported and approved in advance by the receiver,” PwC stated in its letter.

“The movement of water, wastewater, liquid and overall waste on site is now an agenda item on the daily operations calls.”

In his own August 24 letter, also published by the WLWB, environment minister Jay Macdonald said no GNWT inspector had authorized the emulsion disposal occurring at Ekati.

“I believe the response measures PwC has put into place since becoming aware of this issue are both appropriate and comprehensive,” Macdonald wrote.

“I continue to have full confidence in PwC’s ability as receiver to manage the site on a go forward basis.”