Charges laid decade after B.C’s Mount Polley disaster [Video]

Doug Watt won’t forget the sound of a tailings pond collapsing at the Mount Polley Mine more than 10 years ago, sending millions of cubic metres of waste into waterways in the British Columbia Interior.

“I went outside, and you could hear the roar. It was like standing close to Niagara Falls,” the 74-year-old said in an interview Tuesday.

Fifteen federal Fisheries Act charges have been laid against Imperial Metals Corp. and two other firms after the dam collapse at the gold and copper mine in what would become one of the largest environmental disasters in provincial history.

Watt said he and other residents in Likely, B.C., the closest community to the dam, are pleased charges have been laid and now “only time will tell whether they actually get found guilty or not.”

“We’re always wondering all the time, are they going to walk away with no accountability for what …