MITE-RN Year Four Network News

Since the 2002 Annual Research Symposium, one of the major Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) accomplishments of MITE-RN has been the development of a comprehensive synthesis of the ERA implications of each research project. This synthesis includes summaries of how the new research findings may/should change the way ecological risk assessments are performed for metals. See the ERA section on our website: www.mitern.org/research/era/era.shtml for further details of this initiative which is led by Drs. Peter Chapman, Peter Campbell, and Beverley Hale.

In November, the Network re-evaluated its progress against its original objectives as it prepared its 4th Year progress report to NSERC. Letters of support for MITE-RN’s accomplishments were provided by National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada; the Earth Sciences Sector of Natural Resources Canada; the Environmental Program of the Nickel Producers’ Environmental Research Association; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Noranda Inc. – Falconbridge Limited, and the Environment Department of the Ontario Power Generation Inc. Stakeholders have concluded that progress has been laudable, and the decision has been taken to mount a proposal for a MITE-RN II in the spring of 2004.

MITE-RN’s February 25-26, 2003 annual research symposium will be held at the Crowne Plaza in Ottawa. Attendance is open and details are available on our web site at: www.MITHE-SN.org/mite_rn/ann_symp/2003/annual_symposium.shtml. A spring 2003 Metals in the Environment Workshop will be co-hosted by MITE-RN and the Mining Association of Canada to re-convene many of the key
stakeholders who participated in the original Metals in the Environment workshop that was organized by the CNTC in 1996. Proceedings from the 1996 workshop were utilized to set research goals for the MITE-RN and for several government metals programs.

In closing, I want to congratulate the MITE-RN’s Science Director, Peter Campbell, who was recently elected to Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada and appointed as a Canada Research Chair.

LEN RITTER, Ph.D.
MITE-RN Coordinator

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