“British Columbia, Canada’s pollution-prone mining practices threaten the clean water, food security, and economy of every U.S. state unfortunate enough to be located downstream. We’re thrilled that, with the reference of the Elk-Kootenai River to the International Joint Commission, the ongoing contamination of the transboundary Canada-Montana Elk-Kootenai is finally on the path to being addressed.

JUNEAU, ALASKA — The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has released a new report showing that Canadian mining companies use a highly speculative economic model to fuel gold mine staking and exploration at the headwaters of the Taku, Stikine, and Unuk, the transboundary rivers flowing from British Columbia (B.C.) into Southeast Alaska. This activity is harmful to land and people on both sides of the border, threatening water quality, wild salmon habitat, and ways of life.

JUNEAU, ALASKA — Salmon Beyond Borders, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Trollers Association commend Senator Lisa Murkowski for urging President Joe Biden to deny U.S. subsidies to Canadian mining operations until long-standing, existential Canadian mining threats to rivers flowing into Alaska are adequately addressed. In a letter to President Biden dated Sept. 15 and only now made public, Senator Murkowski urges President Biden: “not to allocate any U.S. funding to Canadian projects in the transboundary watershed in general, and to withhold all U.S. support for [mining] projects within Canada until… conditions are met.”

JUNEAU, AK—Representative Mary Peltola, D-AK, today made a statement and issued a press release asserting her “support for an International Watershed Board to address mining impacts on British Columbia and Southeast Alaska rivers.” The statement comes as the International Joint Commission, a U.S. and Canadian commission that prevents and resolves disputes under the U.S.-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, meets this week in Washington, D.C. to discuss, among other topics, British Columbia’s ongoing and threatened contamination of international rivers flowing from the Canadian province of British Columbia (B.C.) into Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Washington states.

JUNEAU, AK—The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida), Sealaska, members of the Alaska State Legislature, and Salmon Beyond Borders today urged immediate federal action on British Columbia’s (B.C.’s) continued industrialization of the headwaters of the T’aakū (Taku), Shtax’héen (Stikine) and Jóonax (Unuk) rivers without the consent, or sometimes even the knowledge, of Tribes, Native corporations, fishermen, and communities downstream. Seven Southeast Alaska Tribes, including Tlingit & Haida, and nine Southeast Alaska municipalities have called on President Joe Biden to immediately secure two things: a temporary pause on all new B.C. mine permits until all of those impacted have had a meaningful say in the future of shared salmon rivers, and a permanent ban on B.C.’s mine waste dams near Alaska-B.C. transboundary salmon rivers. Finally, members of the Alaska State Legislature announced a letter that will be sent to the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in support of these requests from their constituents, urging the Biden Administration to take swift action.

JUNEAU—The Tulsequah Chief Mine, located near the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku Rivers in British Columbia, has long been a source of acid mine contamination as well as frustration for those downstream in Alaska. The former gold mine, which ceased operation in 1957, has been a political and legal football for decades. In mid-August, however, a court-mandated deadline ended for a creditor owed money by the Tulsequah Chief’s bankrupt owner, Chieftain Metals.

JUNEAU—Alaskans today are cautiously encouraged by two recent steps taken to address the ongoing toxic acid mine drainage from the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine, located in the northwest British Columbia (B.C.) portion of the transboundary Taku River watershed, and to prepare for the eventual closure and remediation of the mine site. But they also note that these are only two small steps. There is still much to be done to ensure the Tulsequah Chief is closed down and cleaned up, and to safeguard the lower Taku River from the threat of additional mining.

JUNEAU—Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, along with Congressman Don Young, have sent a letter of concern to the Biden Administration regarding potential impacts from risky large-scale mines in Canada near transboundary waters that flow into Alaska. The letter, dated June 24, went to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and urges the Department of State and Canada to protect downstream communities from British Columbia (B.C.) mines’ potential negative impacts, in line with the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. In spite of decades of repeated efforts from both Republican and Democratic state and federal lawmakers, a proven record of failures in B.C., and repeated requests from sovereign Indigenous nations, B.C. has continued to heavily industrialize and put at risk the international salmon rivers vital to the Tongass National Forest. The ball is now in the Biden Administration’s court.

JUNEAU— An audit by British Columbia’s Mine Audits and Effectiveness Unit, an independent team in the provincial government’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, has revealed that the ministry is continuing to fail to protect communities and the environment — including in Alaska and other U.S. states — from the catastrophic risks associated with massive, toxic mine waste dams, also known as tailings dams.

JUNEAU, AK – At their first joint public meeting today, Alaska’s Dunleavy Administration and the Province of British Columbia (B.C.) attempted to reassure the public they are working to protect people, imperiled salmon, and transboundary salmon rivers from B.C.’s modern-day Gold Rush at the headwaters of the shared Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers. Peter Robb, Assistant Deputy Minister of the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation, stated that this region is where most of B.C.’s mining exploration is focused and where B.C. hopes to build more mines because “it is the ‘Golden Triangle’ after all.” This comment and the meeting presentations did little to allay or meaningfully address three long-term concerns and requests of Alaskans and British Columbians—asks that are only growing more urgent as transboundary salmon runs continue to plummet.

Juneau, AK - The State of Alaska and the Province of British Columbia released yesterday their final report on the B.C.-Alaska Transboundary Rivers Monitoring Program, claiming “extraordinary partnership” across the border and conclusion of the program after river sampling for just two years. While data collection for water quality and fish health in the shared Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers is important, this report is extremely limited in scope, and the state and province grossly misrepresent their collaboration with Tribes in Alaska, First Nations in B.​C., and U.S. federal agencies in their press release about the data report.

In an unprecedented move, U.S. commissioners for the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission (IJC) have accused their Canadian counterparts of repressing information on B.C. mine pollution — and resulting fish kills — in a transboundary U.S.-Canada watershed. The commissioners wrote in a letter to the Department of State’s Office of Canadian Affairs Director Cynthia Kierscht that the “province of British Columbia (B.C.) knows that mining impacts cannot be mitigated to satisfy Article IV of the Boundary Waters Treaty, and, for this reason, B.C. does not want the Parties to refer mining issues to the IJC for resolution.” The revelation makes clear what is at risk for Southeast Alaska if it remains unprotected from B.C. mines near the headwaters of transboundary rivers — and Alaska’s urgent need for binding enforceable protections and financial assurances, which only federal action can achieve.