Former 'Yukon Gold' star pleads guilty to abandoning garbage at mine site

A former star of the History Channel's Yukon Gold program has pled guilty to four environmental violations.

B.C. resident Ken Foy was not in territorial court Tuesday afternoon, so his lawyer Mike Reynolds entered guilty pleas on his behalf.

Three of the charges are under the Placer Mining Act.

Court documents say Foy "failed to leave areas disturbed by mining in a condition conducive to successful revegetation," and is guilty of "failing to re-slope, contour or otherwise stabilize all areas disturbed during the mining operation" and of "failing to remove everything from the site at final decommissioning."

He also pleaded guilty to one violation of the Environment Act for "did unlawfully dispose of solid waste other than at a waste disposal facility or in a container placed for the purposes of collecting solid wastes."

Four other related charges will be spoken to at Foy's sentencing on Oct. 5. 

Vehicles buried at placer mine site

Foy's legal troubles resulted from his placer operation on Moose Creek west of Dawson City from 2012-14.

The government says he was warned that he must clean up the site when he was finished there, but he did not comply with the regulations.

An agreed statement of facts filed with the court says unusable vehicles were buried at the site and a trailer, outhouse and two shacks were left behind.

Waste steel, 45 gallon drums and other garbage also remain.

Foy is no longer listed as a cast member on Yukon Gold's website, but in the past, CBC News reported that the site noted Foy's successive seasons working the "cursed Moose Creek" has "taken a financial and emotional beating" and "left him with nothing."

The program highlights the daily drama of life on Klondike placer mining creeks.