Greetings, David,
I was not in the office FRI, but shall try to contact you 21 February at the NWB office, in case you are there. I also shall try to contact Pat Larocque with INAC on 21 February, as I am unclear as to his concerns. Trenching was part of my original land-use permit submission, and also was noted as a possible work component in my application for renewal of the Kikerk-Knife Lake Water Licence. Trenching should therefore not be considered a change of scope.
I shall be happy to address concerns; that was the point of the “pre-information” regarding trenching. If it is felt that additional water-sampling is required than that proposed, then, DBC will be happy to consider what alternative is proposed, e.g., sampling before and after trenching.
Regards,
-- ssp
-----Original
Message-----
From: David
Hohnstein [mailto:Tech2@nwb.nunavut.ca]
Sent: 17 February 2005 23:16
To: Standafer Pfister, Shirley
Cc: Phyllis Beaulieu
Subject: Re: Query-Water Sampling
Events
Good evening Shirley,
so many emails, it's hard to keep up...
anyway to try and answer some of your questions, firstly, I should let you know that even if you haven't heard anything "negative" from the regulators (have you heard positive?), I'm not sure that assumptions should be made as to the clearance for proceeding with the trenching program you breifly described in your previous email. On Wednesday, I had received a reply to an email I'd sent, from Mr. Larocque, whom you had copied on the email as well, stating that he was concerned and had inquired with the Iqaluit branch and that a letter was to be sent to De Beers, but hadn't heard anything at the time of writing.
As for water related issues, there are some unknowns that would require clarification. With respect to water use, you had mentioned (in the confidential email) that no additional water use would be required. However there may concerns with various aspects of waste disposal, impacts to water and restoration of the site that have not been addressed in the original application and information available to reviewers at the time of application. The A&R plan at present may not cover the concerns with the trenching and your indication that 300t of material is planned to be removed could be considered significant.
Pat indicated he would get back to me once he found out what was happening on their end.
As far as the water sampling goes, I'm not too sure of the reasons for sampling. You indicated that there wouldn't be any drilling in knife lake in 2005? I had a brief look at the sampling report for 2004. Are you looking at qualifying some of the results from that sampling program? Or just building up some background monitoring data?
I am currently in the Gjoa office until later Friday afternoon, so please feel free to give me a call to further discuss some of your questions.
Regards,
David Hohnstein
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:44 AM
Subject: Query-Water Sampling Events
Greetings, David,
Having received no negative replies from any of the regulators, I am assuming that we may proceed with the proposed modest trenching programme in spring 2005 at Knife Lake (NWB Licence #NWB0405).
It is appears that Teck actually dismantled and removed the camp we had planned to use NE of Knife Lake, so we shall instead work out of a temporary camp – 3-4 Weatherhavens for the job, then remove them. There would be only about 5 persons on site for the week of the programme and the approx. 3-5 days it would take to set up the temporary encampment.
Here is my question, which I thought I would bring directly to the technical adviser, as we are now preparing our budget: Is it sufficient for us to collect water-quality samples in a single event (either during the activity period or later, in open water)? Since there will be NO drilling in Knife Lake in 2005, only a few land-based trenches at the north end of the lake, it is hard to justify multiple sampling events. There also will not be a typical camp setup to work from, only a few temporary tents for about a week. Alternatively, I could have the water-quality sampling event deferred to summer 2005 and sample the stations off a floatplane (non-metal pontoons).
In the year when drilling does proceed – say, 2006 – then the usual suite of water-sampling events could proceed – that is, before/during/after drilling.
Your opinion is much valued. Thanks in advance for your usual prompt reply.
Best regards,
-- ssp