Silica hearing bumped back

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This article was published 10/02/2022 (1172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents of the Southeast concerned by a proposed silica sand mining operation east of Anola will have to wait longer to address the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission.

Manitoba’s environment minister has granted the CEC’s request to bump back the review window by six months due to the technical nature of the material under consideration.

The hearing has the potential to affect whether Sio Silica, formerly known as CanWhite Sands, will receive a licence to extract underground silica sand deposits located in and around the hamlet of Vivian.

The Calgary-based company wants to mine up to 1.3 million tonnes of silica sand from the Vivian area annually for the next two and a half decades.

On Nov. 15 of last year, Sarah Guillemard, then Manitoba’s minister of climate and conservation, ordered a CEC hearing and technical review of the company’s novel slurry extraction method, which involves forcing air down wells to bring up sand mixed with groundwater.

The company plans to separate the sand in an onsite processing facility and return the water to the ground after passing it under an ultraviolet light. The province has already licensed the processing plant but said that won’t influence its decision on the extraction method.

Guillemard’s letter instructed the CEC to begin the review process “as soon as possible” and complete it by March 15, 2022.

But in a Dec. 14 letter posted to the CEC website, Serge Scrafield, then chair of the CEC, asked Guillemard for a timeframe extension.

Scrafield explained the March 15 deadline “will be difficult to meet,” given the technical nature of the proposal. Scrafield said the review and hearing process will take about six months.

Scrafield also noted the CEC couldn’t start its review process until Guillemard’s department completed its own review.

In a Jan. 13 written response addressed to Scrafield’s successor, Jonathan Scarth, Guillemard said her department’s review process “remaining ongoing” and approved the timeline extension.

Five days later, a cabinet shuffle occurred and Jeff Wharton was named Manitoba’s new minister of environment, climate, and parks.

This week, Wharton’s press secretary, Caitlin MacGregor, confirmed the departmental review is done, adding the minister’s six-month extension didn’t come with a hard deadline.

“The province is committed to ensuring that the Clean Environment Commission has the time it needs to do this work and an environmental licensing decision on the extraction project will not be made until the work is completed,” MacGregor said in an email.