"Environmental Appeal Board", 26 February 2025

This is an appeal from an administrative penalty (the “Penalty”) imposed in a Determination of Administrative Penalty dated September 14, 2023, (the “Determination”). The Penalty was imposed by Michael Lapham, a Compliance Section Head in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (the “Ministry”) acting as a designated delegate (the “Delegate”) of the Director (the “Director”) under the Environmental Management Act, S.B.C. 2003, c. 53 (the “EMA”). The Penalty is against Coeur Silvertip Holdings Ltd. (“Coeur”)...

Section 4.1 of the Permit required Coeur to maintain suitable flow measuring devices and sampling facilities, and to undertake toxicity testing, flow monitoring, sampling and analyses of the effluent discharge, and of the receiving environment surface water and groundwater at Silvertip...

Following an opportunity to be heard (the “OTBH”), the Delegate concluded that Coeur had failed to comply with the groundwater monitoring requirements under section 4.1 of the Permit on 12 occasions between January 1, 2021 (2020 Q4), and October 1, 2021 (2021 Q3), at 8 Wells...

The Penalty imposed by the Delegate for the 12 contraventions under section 115 of the EMA and the Administrative Penalties (Environmental Management Act) Regulation, B.C. Reg. 133/2014 (the “Regulation”) was $19,000...

Specific Well sites were either damaged, destroyed, or dry...

Coeur says it was actively working to amend the Permit to reflect these changes, spending over $350,000 on groundwater monitoring program improvements since 2021...

Coeur submits the non-compliances at issue were minor and did not cause any actual or potential adverse impacts to the environment or human health...

Coeur submits that, in the above circumstances, the imposition of the Penalty was inappropriate and should be reversed...

Having considered the evidence, submissions of the parties and all of the relevant Factors, I find that an administrative penalty of $9,600 is appropriate in the circumstances and will serve as an adequate deterrent specifically to Coeur...