Communicating danger : Community primer on communicating the arsenic hazards at Yellowknife's Giant Mine to future generations

"The Giant Mine Remediation Plan proposes to freeze 237,000 tons of toxic arsenic trioxide dust where it is currently stored underground. It is likely that water pumping, monitoring, and maintenance at the site will be necessary for a very long time to prevent the arsenic from seeping into the local environment. The recent environmental assessment of the project requires ongoing research into a permanent solution to the arsenic problem at Giant Mine within a 100 year time frame. Despite this, a century is a very long time (people have forgotten about toxic sites over shorter periods), and there is no guarantee that technology can be developed to safely remove all arsenic from the site. A system to communicate with future generations about the arsenic hazards will reduce the risk people will forget about the site. ... At Giant Mine, a messaging system might involve simple warning signs and text messages imploring people not to damage the thermosyphons, with more detailed technical information on how to replace this equipment when necessary and maintain other facilities such as the water treatment plant. Unlike nuclear waste, it is possible that the arsenic threat might be removed within a relative short period of time (a matter of decades rather than the centuries it takes for nuclear waste to decay), so the emphasis might be on 'relaying' information on how to maintain the site to people roughly a century from now"--