The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office announced Thursday it rejected the application for Compliance Energy’s proposed Raven Coal Mine near Buckley Bay.
In a letter to Compliance president and CEO John Tapics, the BCEAO said “the application does not contain the required information and (the BCEAO) has decided not to accept the application for detailed review.”
The BCEAO also released a 114-page document “that identifies the major information requirements that EAO considers not to have been adequately addressed . . . should Compliance wish to revise and resubmit its application to EAO for evaluation . . . we request that Compliance first incorporate into the application the information identified (in that 114-page document).”
The NEWS could not reach anyone at Compliance for comment Friday afternoon.
The Western Wilderness Committee has been vocal in its opposition to the mine throughout the assessment process.
“The Environmental Assessment Office has acknowledged the serious gaps in information in this application and sent the company back to the drawing board,” said Torrance Coste, the WWC’s Vancouver Island Campaigner. “The decision serves to highlight this company’s utter lack of commitment to the local communities, First Nations and our shared environment, and is just another indication that this mine doesn’t belong on Vancouver Island.”