Britannia Beach, British Columbia

Britannia Beach is a small unicorporated community in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District of about 300 people on the mainland shore of Howe Sound in British Columbia. It has a reputation as the most notorious mining ground in North America, being still extremely polluted years after the mining operation shut down.

It is located approximately 30 kilometers north of Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The town is host to the British Columbia Museum of Mining, on the grounds of the old Britannia Mines.

The Post Office opened on January 1, 1907 and was named after the mine nearby, which was named after the Britannia Range in which it is situated. The mountain in turn was named after the ship HMS Britannia (III) in 1859 by her commanding officer, one Captain Richards. From the late 19th through the mid-20th century, Britannia was the largest copper mine in the British Commonwealth. Its ownership later shifted to Anaconda Mining, a now-defunct US-based company.

In the 1940s, there were talks to build an artist village in Britannia's hills, but that plan did not proceed.

Ferries services stopped around May 1965 after the highway and railway connections had been constructed.

After Anaconda gave up the mine in 1974 because it was deemed no longer profitable, it did not attempt to clean up the chemical wastes that the mine still produces automatically, since the British Columbian and federal laws did not require them to do so. The economy of the town diminished rapidly, and the railway station shut down soon after.

The water in Britannia Creek is extremely clear and transparent -- which is a bad sign, since that means no living creaturi can survive in it. The river water cannot be consumed by human either.

A Vancouver-based accounting firm bought the entire town, making Britannia still a "company town". The living conditions were less than ideal and the accounting firm did not attempt to clean up the polluted land either. All residents were tenants of the company.

In the 1950s?, about 100 Britannia residents died after a flood. In 1991, another flood occurred when a dam was blown up, although there was no casualty this time. Miscalculation of the needed quantity of dynamite caused the explosion at the dam to cause more troubles than anticipated.

The 250 Britannia residents in 2000 are mostly not the descendants of the miners of old, most of whom have long ago moved away. Many present-day Britannia residents moved here from about 1980 onwards. Nevertheless, most of these enduring residents have chosen to reside in Britannia despite the difficulties.

In summer 2003, the provincial government took up the responsibility and bought the town from its previous owners, and took it upon itself to finance the land reclamation and cleanup projects. A highway will pass right through Britannia and the new town will host 5000 people. Some BC observers speculate that this generous deed is to give southern BC a better image in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics that it will host.

Scientists from the University of British Columbia designed the Millennium Plug, a huge device designed to prevent more pollutant from going into Howe Sound. As of 2004, the Plug's performance has been deemed satisfactory. In addition, University of British Columbia scientists are developing a state-of-the-art heating system using the warm polluted metallic water seeping from the mines.

External link

• Portal To Britannia Beach (http://sea-to-sky.net/britanniabeach)