A multinational corporation has been operating the Big Strike Copper Mine in the dry interior of British Columbia for nearly ten years. It is located 10 miles outside of Centreville, a rapidly growing service centre for the mid part of the province. At the last census the population was 60,000. The city is downstream of the mine on the Salmon River and upstream of a major native Indian reserve. Both the city and the reserve draw their water from the Salmon. Just downstream of the city but upstream of the Indian reserve there is a tributary stream, Dry Gulch Torrent, that drains an area of irrigated agriculture. Most of the people working at the mine live in the city. The native Indians rely on the salmon fishery for part of their food and are beginning to find employment both in the town and at the mine. Because it is a large user of water in the Salmon River and because it has a policy of maintaining good community relations, the mine has offered to fund a water resource management plan for the region. There have, however, been rumors that the mine needs more water and that it is thinking about a diversion from the headwaters of Dry Gulch Torrent.
Since your firm has a good reputation throughout Canada for undertaking such planning and you have worked in the region before, you have been invited to submit a proposal to do the work. In preparation for your first meeting with the mine, you have been asked to submit a brief memorandum (not more than 1000 words) that addresses two questions:
It is understood that if the meetings go well, you will then proceed to develop a detailed proposal.
Marking will be on the same basis as Analytical Exercise 1.
DUE 8.00am 10th November