www.SaltWire.com
The Canadian Province of Nova Scotia has released its risk ranking of potentially contaminated historical mine sites. The list includes 69 sites across the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia that were once home to a range of mining operations dating back to the 1800s. Most of the top sites are old gold mines, many of the lower-ranking ones were copper, coal and limestone mines. Materials containing chemicals such as mercury and arsenic being dumped on land and in waterways.
The Canadian Province of Nova Scotia created the list by analyzing each site for human health risks, the size of the site, chemical and physical properties and ecology. Human health risks were given more weight than the other categories. The list does not include all contaminated former mines. Nova Scotia Lands is only responsible for remediating sites on Crown land, so private properties contaminated from old mines are not on the list.