> Environmentalists have been working for 16 years for these data to be
> released!
>
> Federal Court ruling issued on Thursday will force Environment Canada to
> collect from the industry and divulge to the public the amount of toxic
> compounds in tailings and waste rocks found around every mine in the
> country.
>
> (
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090424.wmining0424/BNStory/National/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp)
>
> Also, how the data are to be released are now being discussed. For instance
>
civicaccess.ca is about the sharing of data for free and in an accessible
> way in order to render the data useful for myriad applications. Environment
> Canada has a National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). The mining
> companies may choose to release but not in those formats. Although, I do
> not know why they should have a choice as to how it is released, you would
> think it would be the choice of EnvCan! The article discusses whether or not
> this is a suitable place to publicly release those data:
>
> The mining industry doesn't object in principle to revealing its pollution
> information, but doesn't believe the NPRI is the proper place for the
> disclosure, said Maggie Papoulias, spokesperson for the Mining Association
> of Canada. She said the trade group is reviewing the ruling.
>
> I just went and looked up the NPRI dbase and the library did not work nor
> did the data search, however, the location of facilities are downloadable in
> an access dbase with location information and a number of services are also
> available for mapping -
> (
http://www.ec.gc.ca/inrp-npri/default.asp?lang=En&n=98A4F382-1).
>
> Now it will be up to people to go and use these data somehow. The data
> being made available is just the first step, dialogue begins when good
> questions come up and local stakeholders can use these to inform change.
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> 613-234-2805
>
https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
>