One of two engineers that faced disciplinary hearings over the 2014 collapse of the Mount Polley mine’s tailings pond has been fined and is no longer allowed to practise as a professional engineer in B.C., according to the Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (EGBC).
An EGBC disciplinary panel was held for two engineers that had been responsible for tailings pond engineering and safety.
Former engineer Stephen Rice and engineer Laura Fidel were found by the panel to have “demonstrated unprofessional conduct in the course of their work at the Mount Polley Mine.”
Rice was fined $25,000 and also agreed to pay $107,500 in legal costs to the EGBC.
“Mr. Rice resigned his engineering licence in January 2018 and is no longer permitted to practise professional engineering in British Columbia,” the panel said in a statement posted August 10.
“A discipline hearing panel found that Mr. Rice failed to properly fulfill the role of review engineer, demonstrated unprofessional conduct by allowing a junior engineer (Fidel) who had little experience with embankment design to act as Engineer of Record for the project, failed to ensure sufficient observation and monitoring of the tailings dam, failed to document his review work, and failed to ensure an excavation left unfilled at the toe of the embankment was assessed to determine what impact it may have on the stability of the embankment.”
While some of the allegations against Fidel were dismissed, others were upheld.
“The panel found that Ms. Fidel failed to ensure sufficient observation and monitoring of the tailings dam while acting as Engineer of Record, including by failing to ensure sufficient site visits and failing to monitor seepage flows which could provide evidence of a potentially unsafe condition within the embankments,” the disciplinary panel found.
A penalty hearing has not yet been scheduled to determine whether Fidel will be fined or face other disciplinary sanctions.
On August 4, 2014, the tailings pond at the Mount Polley copper mine collapsed, sending 20 million cubic metres of water and slurry flooding into into Hazeltine Creek, Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake.
The disaster cost Imperial Metals (TSX:III) $67 million in clean-up and remediation costs, as well as revenue lost from the mine being shut down.
The disaster was investigated by both federal and provincial agencies, but the company was never charged with wrongdoing.
In 2016, Imperial Metals sued the two engineering firms responsible for the tailings pond’s design, maintenance and supervision -- Knight Piesold Ltd., the original engineering firm, and its successors: Amec Americas Ltd., Amec Earth and Environmental and Amerc Foster Wheeler Americas Ltd.
In 2018, the firms settled out of court, with Imperial Metals receiving $108 million.
