CC dataupdate

NOTE: Assessment information continues to trickle in so it is obvious that there are still a lot of people in the Kettle Valley who agree that we must keep the pressure on until we get an amendment to the Minerals Tenure Act that puts an absolute stop to any willful exposure of radioactive material so as to endanger the health of British Columbians. We will emphasize again that we in the Kettle Valley are exposed to both high natural background radiation AND dissolved uranium in our drinking water. Our total intake of radioactive material cannot bear even the slightest increase.

We will not cease our vigilance because the enemy capitulates temporarily. That is what an Order in Council is – a temporary reprieve. We continue to follow the Stock Market and the Uranium Spot Price. As we have pointed out at recent meetings, the people of Grand Forks drink from the same water source but with additional uranium that enters the river in the short run from Midway to Carson’s Bridge. There are three small U.S. mines in that pour their affluent into the Kettle in that short stretch and that brings the amount of dissolved uranium occasionally above the toleration limit for municipal water suppliers.

We ask you to encourage the property owners of Grand Forks to get on the protest wagon with us and submit their assessment information as some are already doing. There is strength in numbers, especially when one is combating an uncaring government.

STAND UP FOR THE KETTLE !

STAND UP for the KETTLE

The Committee for a Clean Kettle Valley is assembling a data base for a Class Action Lawsuit against the BC Government (Mines) and/or several uranium mining companies who wish to put us at risk by mining uranium in the Okanagan Highlands and thus polluting either or both branches of the Kettle River and of course the main river to its junction with the Columbia River in the U.S. The risk of Radon contamination of our entire land mass is also a distinct possibility. These opinions are suppositions but are based on a careful study of all publicly available data on underground, open-pit and ISL uranium mines in the world since uranium mining started. We will ask B.C.Supreme Court judges to determine to what extent our property values are at risk.

Our basis for claim will be the risk of loss of property value as a result of what we deem to be the inevitable and irreversible pollution by radioactive and heavy metal tailings, ISL acid and Radon.

The information that we will need as a basis for our claim is available at the Land Titles Office and we may have to resort to extracting some there, but so far 95% of the landowners who hear of our plan have volunteered the information. This is good for our claim in court. The property value that we are attaching to each Lot is the 2008 Assessment value. It is relative, is a BC Government figure, and is in the public domain.

We wish to include every private Lot that lies, in Canada, south of Trapping Creek and Damfino Creek down to the Orient Border Crossing and that does, or could, if it was needed draw water from the Kettle River aquifer.

Willy Floyd, CCKV Researcher

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Please provide the following statistics (from your 2008 Land Assessment Form) for each Lot separately;

Lot PID #___________________ Lot Street Address__________________________

Owners' Name _______________________ Property Classification (r/f/c)______

Total Assessed Value $_____,______.

Send to Box 193, Westbridge or email tester13@xplornet.com

or phone me at 250 446 2242

Your comments will be welcome. We will happily provide a speaker to your event.

WHAT IS A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT? HOW DO THEY WORK?

For the information of all concerned, a Class Action Lawsuit such as we propose does not need the approval of those who will be included in the “Class”. However, all those on the Class list shall be notified and anyone may then elect to be excluded, in which case they shall not share in any benefit or award that results. There will inevitably be a claim for damages attached (so the lawyers can be paid) and the remaining 60 or 70% would be distributed amongst the claimants as per a decision by the judge, or by an agreement reached between the two lawyers if the case be settled out of court.

If our lawsuit is successful in having the proposed mining for uranium stopped, all Kettle River landowners will obviously benefit both financially and physically but those who chose not to participate might not enjoy equal community acclaim with those who fought and won the battle.

If the “Class” list data base contains a high percentage of citizens who voluntarily submitted the information that we need, we expect the Court to be impressed and thus we might expect it to issue a decision in our favour. Our entire community will know who won the battle for both property value and freedom from radioactive pollution and who did not. They could be expected to react accordingly.

Have no doubt - this is a battle. We at the ‘pointy end’ need to know that we have the support of the vast majority of our fellow citizens. If too many Kettle Valley landowners remain adamantly battle-shy the case will probably die stillborn.

Essentially the few contrary arguments I have personally heard amount to either gross ignorance or are from men who will risk all, including their health and the health of future generations for a few short-term pieces of silver. Those types have always existed and can be ignored. It is the undecided and uncommitted that must be encouraged.

Indecisive armies do not win battles! Start beating the drum people !

Willy Floyd, CCKV Researcher, 27 Feb 2009