4/22/2025
WT Staff
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Wednesday, April 23 2025 751 pm EDT
Sherridon MB: Metal Leaching - Acid Rock Drainage mine closure a worst-case-scenario
Abandoned mine continues to leach dissolved metals above threshold, no official impact study on aquatic life downstream
Tucked up in the boreal forest of northern Canada, in Treaty 5 Adhesion territory, in the province of Manitoba, part of the Red River Metis homeland in the vast Hudson Bay drainage basin, an unsightly wound festers, spreading acidic contamination downstream. A cautionary tale for the public, picture what happens when a mine is approved without a closure plan. Millions of tonnes of highly reactive sulfide-bearing waste rock and tailings were discarded at the surface, carelessly left to rust away. When government stepped in to remediate the site, the advice of geologists was ignored. The mass of waste rock and tailings was swept into the basin of Camp Lake and flooded, producing a metal leaching - acid rock drainage night-terror.
Sherridon Abandoned Mine project is unremediation, non-remediation, a blight on the very term. This is a fix gone awry. Residents have taken their case to the courts to demand a stop to the ongoing drainage discharge fouling Kississing Lake and the downstream environment.
Eighty residents remain in Sherridon today, seventy-five years after the namesake mine closure. Most families were moved in 1950, along with their homes, the buildings skidded overland to the next working mine site. Debi Hatch is a member of one of the original families that remained in the area, living on the shore of Kississing Lake all her life. Debi has been the a consistent advocate for Kississing Lake, drawing attention to the unsightly tomato soup appearance of Camp Lake, diligently and tirelessly studying the water quality monitoring reports and pointing out the breaches. Debi recalls the early communication from the Project Management team, when fresh water from Charlette Creek, (the local family name misspelled "Sherlett" by cartographers), locals were assured they would be back to fishing and swimming in Camp Lake in no time.
Now fifteen years on, and hundreds of letters, calls and cries for help later, the people of Sherridon have not yet managed to resolve the ever-escalating damage and visible impact of the metal leaching and acidic discharge from the abandoned mine.
See 2017 CBC article, "No trust whatsoever", here.
The 2021 Water Quality Monitoring Program Summary for the Sherridon Orphaned Mine Reclamation Project indicates the water in Cold Lake arm of Kississing Lake is meeting Canadian Guidelines for Recreational Water Quality. The community drinking water source is located upstream of the mine drainage site. Drinking water is not impacted.
Consultant to the project Doug Ramsay writes the technical reports for Sherridon Orphaned Mine Reclamation Project, including the 2021 Water Quality Monitoring Report. In the Executive Summary, the report states, "The prevalent cadmium, copper and zinc concentrations, consistently exceeding the Tier II objectives in Sherlett Creek during open water season are a direct concern for resident aquatic life in the creek. The extent to which the seasonal and resident aquatic life in Sherlett Creek ...may be affected by the metal concentrations...has not been investigated."
Indeed, it appears there has been no study of impact to aquatic life outside of the diversion channel created for fish spawning. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans responded to an Access to Information Request regarding environmental impact studies for the receiving body, Kississing Lake. The DFO media response stated the diversion channel established by the project for fish spawning is considered acceptable. No further study of the aquatic environment downstream of Camp Lake has been undertaken by DFO.
Local residents and visitors report seeing iron floc further downstream year by year. Boats in Kississing Lake were stained orange in 2018 and 2019, orange ice was harvested in 2021, and iron flakes were found along Kississing beaches in spring 2024.
The most recent anecdotal observation of water quality comes from regular ice fishing visitors with fifteen years tenure at this location, the same time each year. In 2025, the ice-fishers report the water in Kississing Lake "clear down to a depth of 30 feet". The norm this time of year has been no more than ten feet visibility. This observation may sound like an improvement in water quality, however has set off alarms for members of the Hatch family. The fishers report is an indication that conditions are changing deeper in the lake and may be wiping out the tiny aquatic organisms that limit visibility in the deeper water.
Residents of Sherridon are a mix of Metis, non-status, status Indians and non-Aboriginal residents organized as an unincorporated community within the Northern Association of Community Councils. The duly elected Mayor and Council represent the community, receiving the environmental monitoring reports of the Province of Manitoba-led project. A collaboration table consisting of representatives of Sherridon, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and the Manitoba Metis Federation, along with Government of Manitoba Project Manager and technical team has not convened a meeting in 2025.
We reached out to the MMF for an update and received this reply, "While the MMF appreciates you reaching out, we do not have any comments or updates to share." Contact was made with Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, located north of Sherridon for comment, more to follow. The Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak provides services to northern Manitoba First Nation communities. We reached out to MKO for guidance on additional communities to connect with for feedback and response to the Kississing Lake situation, more to follow.
WaterToday seeks input from communities and individuals impacted by the ongoing metal leaching - acid rock drainage in northern Manitoba. Send us an email, info@watertoday.ca to add your impact statement here.
Read the view on Sherridon from MiningWatch Canada, here.
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