Alberta regulator approves Northback coal exploration project in Rockies
Grassy Mountain project was initially rejected in 2021
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) says it has approved Northback Holdings Corporation's coal exploration project at the Grassy Mountain site on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
The Grassy Mountain project was rejected in 2021, when a panel ruled the mine's likely environmental effects on the fish and water quality outweighed potential economic benefits.
The project was revived two years later and last year it was exempted from Alberta's decision to ban open-pit coal mines because it was considered an advanced proposal.
The latest ruling gives Northback a permit to divert water to the mine site, which was among the concerns raised by farmers in drought-ridden parts of southern Alberta.
The regulator says the company will only be able to draw water from a nearby end pit lake owned by Northback that's not directly connected to other water bodies or rivers. An end pit lake is a water body that forms in the excavated pit of an open-pit mine.
The AER says the project won't have any effect on water quality or quantity downstream.