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Vale Inco’s Manitoba Operation owns and operates the city’s water treatment plant. The plant has a 4.5 million gallon per day capacity. As part of the 1956 agreement, it supplies potable water not only to its own plant for its needs, but also to the City of Thompson free of charge.
Vale Inco maintains open communications on environmental issues through a Public Liaison Committee (PLC). Comprised of about a dozen volunteer members of the community, the PLC meets quarterly to discuss Vale Inco environmental issues that may be a concern to residents. It also arranges for tours of the operation and speakers on specific topics.
Manitoba Operations recognizes the need to be an environmentally responsible neighbour. The operation’s weather station monitors daily the wind direction, air pressures and other environmental factors that can cause the plume from the stack to disperse over the city, causing residents to smell sulphur dioxide. When the operation is able to forecast this is about to happen, operators in the Smelter automatically turn down the roasters to reduce th effects of the sulphur dioxide. In addition, there are three monitoring stations at key locations in the city that help this process. The program is called the Voluntary Emissions Reduction Program (VERP).
The Operation also maintains a 24-hour-a-day environmental hotline should residents have environmental concerns. This service guarantees that callers will reach a real person, not an answering machine. The hotline number is 778-2888.
A local website also provides real-time emissions data from each of the three monitoring stations in the city of Thompson.
Manitoba Operations occupies more than 250 acres. Included in this is a tailings basin which acts as a settling pond primarily for tailings from the mill. The tailings pond is closely monitored and managed. A large assortment of waterfowl and other birds nest in the grasses on the shores of the tailings pond.
The operation relies primarily on hydro-electricity for its energy, and is therefore an extremely low producer of greenhouse gases, which helps keep its environmental footprint small. Two mines which were recently decommissioned, Soab North and Soab South, earned the praise of the provincial government’s conservation department for the steps taken to leave the sites as though no industry has occupied them.
© Vale Inco 2007
Last Updated: July 30, 2009
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