Rapid Assessment and Rapid Remediation Process (RARR)
Historically, the mining industry has been the backbone of development and economic success within the Kootenay region – with over 600 mines operating in the Salmo River watershed sporadically since the late 1800’s. The ongoing environmental impact of the remnants (tailings) left behind has gone unmeasured and un-managed in most cases. These abandoned mine tailings and their ecological impacts are a priority for the Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society (SWSS) and our organization has continued to explore and develop ways to mitigate, manage and facilitate remediation of these sites.
In 2019 the Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society (SWSS) developed the Rapid Assessment and Rapid Remediation Process (RARR) to quickly analyze, characterize, revalue, and where possible, remediate abandoned tailings. With respect to abandoned mine tailings, the SWSS is moving toward a social enterprise interested in assaying tailings to assess existing mineral constituents that may be available for extraction (and available for value added recycling), removing tailings from the pollution stream and increasing ecosystem health. In a nutshell, RARR is a streamlined location and community-based assessment process that will generate a transferable site-specific summary package that provides tailings characterization and remediation recommendations.
The process has four main steps:
1. Identification of an abandoned mine tailing site and its site characteristics,
2. Assessment of the site’s geographical, biological, and chemical components,
3. Analyzing assessment results; and
4. Remediating the tailings with the appropriate, selected, pathway(s).
In the words of SWSS Special Projects Coordinator Gerry Nellestijn: “This is a huge opportunity for the mining community and for ecosystem health. RARR’s revolutionary groundbreaking strategy is an innovative green economic approach to find value in waste and to move toward implementation of ways to effectively, cheaply and permanently rehabilitate tailings sites that have been abandoned.”
Aerial view of the former Dundee mill site.
With support from Cassiar Gold, the SWSS has developed a website specific to RARR methodology and issues surrounding abandoned mine tailings in the region and beyond. For an in-depth description of RARR please visit https://rarr.ca/ .
The development of a standardized protocol for mine tailings assessments has allowed the SWSS to secure funding to implement RARR as a pilot program in the Salmo River Watershed. With support from the Real Estate Foundation of BC, four orphaned mine tailings sites were assessed in the region in 2022, allowing for fine tuning of the protocol. This is only the beginning however, as mine tailings work has been carried out in 2024 and will continue in 2025. The SWSS is building interest, support and collaboration with industry, various Ministries of the BC Provincial Governement and other stakeholders for this exciting project!