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Mining operations in Canada threaten rivers in the US
BY CASSIDY RANDALL | MAY 26 2020 The Skagit River in northwest Washington is the last best ecologically functional place in the Puget Sound. It provides one-third of the freshwater flowing into the sound, generates electricity for millions of people, and hosts the most biodiverse array of aquatic and terrestrial species in the Pacific Northwest. The Skagit supports one of the last healthy salmon runs in the Lower 48, producing over half of the wild chinook that feed the endangered Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea. “It’s a nexus for the aquatic and terrestrial worlds, and the fresh- and saltwater worlds,” says John McMillan, science director for Trout Unlimited’s Wild Steelhead Initiative. The Skagit’s waters are the very lifeblood of the Salish Sea region, which stretches from Olympia, Washington, to well north of Vancouver, British Columbia. While the Skagit may be healthy and robust along most of its length in the United States, it now faces a threat coming from hundreds of miles away, from north of the US-Canada border. And therein lies a geopolitical problem for river conservation: Rivers don’t adhere to lines drawn on maps, and neither does toxic pollution leaked into them from industry. In March 2019, the Vancouver, BC–based mining company Imperial Metals applied for a permit to begin exploration for gold in a region called the Donut Hole, an unprotected area surrounded by provincial parks at the headwaters of the Skagit River in British Columbia, about 140 miles northeast of its mouth. The prospect of a new mine at the Skagit headwaters—and the very real possibility that an industrial accident there could ruin the river’s health—has spurred US elected officials, tribal leaders, businesses, and environmental organizations to try to revive a century-old treaty that says neither Canada nor the United States can negatively affect shared watersheds to the detriment of people on the other side of the border. Last summer, all eight senators, from both parties, representing the border states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, signed a letter to BC premier John Horgan asking him for oversight and accountability in transboundary rivers. “These transboundary watersheds support critical water supply, recreation opportunities, and wildlife habitat that support many livelihoods in local communities,” the letter stated. “We seek your direct engagement on these matters.” In a response to the US senators’ letter, Horgan said that the British Columbia mining industry is subject to “world-leading regulation and oversight.” Many environmental groups and Canadian First Nations disagree with Horgan’s point of view. British Columbia was settled by Europeans during the gold rush era, and, when it comes to mining law, little has changed from the mid-1800s. Companies can still stake sub-surface rights almost anywhere without consent or consultation, regardless of what’s on the surface, be it First Nations’ territories, private land, river headwaters, or other sensitive ecological regions. Today, BC is home to more exploration mining companies than anywhere else in the world, and they’re subject to lax regulatory laws. A 2016 BC Auditors report of the province’s mining sector found that the Ministry of Energy and Mines “role to promote mining development is diametrically opposed to compliance and enforcement” to protect against environmental risk. Already, Canada has more mine tailings spills than any other country in the world except China. Without significant changes to current mining practices, BC can expect two tailings dam failures every 10 years. Imperial Metals, whose geologists are focusing on the Skagit headwaters, is responsible for the worst mining disaster in Canadian history. On August 14, 2014, a breach in the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine outside Likely, BC, dumped 25 million cubic meters of wastewater and tailings into Quesnel Lake, the headwaters of the Fraser River. The place is known as one of the birthing waters of salmon; it is the spawning waters for an estimated 25 percent of BC’s sockeye, and as much as 60 percent during peak years. Nuskmata Jacinda Mack was the natural resources manager for the Secwepemc First Nations community of Xat’sull when the dam failed. “I just knew that things would never be the same again,” she said. “This is a special place. It’s where we get our medicines, where spiritual work happens. Imperial Metals dumping poison into our watershed like that. . . . It was so deep, so gutting. We had death ceremonies for it [Quesnel Lake].” She knew from walking the dam site and reviewing permits that the company had no plan in place for handling such a disaster, let alone the mitigation of one. The 2018 salmon return was strong at over 10 million sockeye, but scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are still completing peer review of a paper on the long-term impacts to salmon health, and, due to legal issues with the Mount Polley mine, were not at liberty to comment. Afraid of heavy metal contamination, people have stopped eating the fish, a blow to the community’s food security. “It had a huge cultural impact,” Mack said. “People don’t spend time around the lake anymore, so place names aren’t being used. Kids aren’t using the trails. We’re losing our connection to the land.” SIGN UPImperial Metals was never fined, and surrounding communities received no compensation for the accident. The toxic tailings deposit sitting at the bottom of Quesnel Lake is estimated to be 600 meters long and a kilometer wide. A 2015 engineering report by an independent panel found the Mount Polley dam construction had failed to incorporate shifting layers of ground soil due to its location in a glaciated area. Imperial Metals did not respond to Sierra’s requests for comment. Now, some people fear that, were Imperial Metals to excavate a mine at the headwaters of the Skagit, that river could be in similar jeopardy. The Skagit River is home to steelhead and all five species of salmon. While 27 native salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest are currently listed as endangered—and another 100-plus run have been functionally extinct for decades—the Skagit hosts the largest amount of all of these fish in Puget Sound. “We’ve been the stewards of the Skagit since time immemorial. We are known as the Salmon People,” said Joe Williams, vice chairman of the Swinomish Senate. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has been fighting the Imperial Metals permit since the company first sought one. “The river is instrumental in our cultural and economic and spiritual way of life. One of our biggest concerns is if we had a catastrophic tailings spill releasing toxics into the Skagit.” Even if there isn’t a catastrophic mine tailing spill upstream, the Skagit could still suffer death by a thousand cuts from toxic leaching—a very real risk painfully demonstrated by what has happened to some of the last genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout on the planet, in Montana’s Kootenai River, another cross-border watershed. Since the 1990s, Teck Resources’ coal mines outside Fernie, BC, have been leaching selenium into the Elk River, a tributary of the Kootenai. Measurements have found selenium levels far above the two parts per billion set forth in provincial guidelines, at 50 to 70 parts per billion, and as much as 100 in some cases. In fish, overexposure to selenium leads to facial and spinal deformities, missing fins and an absence of gill plates, deformities that are showing up in trout in the Kootenai. BC officials ordered Teck to develop a water quality management plan in 2013, but Teck has repeatedly exceeded limits; in the meantime, BC has issued the company permits to expand its mines on the Elk. One independent report warned that increases in selenium would lead to “a total population collapse” of westslope cutthroat. “We view the Elk Valley as a poster child for BC regulatory policy gone wrong, if you need someplace to look for what you don’t want to happen in your transboundary watershed,” said University of Montana biologist Erin Sexton. The Stikine River that flows from BC into Southeast Alaska is also threatened by cross-border pollution. In 2015, Imperial Metals began operations at the Red Chris Mine on the Stikine River—using the same tailings pond design as the Mount Polley mine, only 27 times bigger. In 2019, American Rivers declared the Stikine, which has a productive and healthy salmon run and is beloved by boaters, one of the top 10 endangered rivers in the country due to threats from mining. The Stikine lies in a region of large-scale mines that the industry refers to as the "Golden Triangle” and which spans the Taku, Unuk, Stikine, and Nass watersheds. These are Southeast Alaska’s biggest salmon-producing rivers. “We’ve been trying to rebrand the Golden Triangle as the Salmon Coast,” said Jill Weitz, executive director of Salmon Beyond Borders, which works to defend transboundary rivers from pollution. Weitz is a coauthor, along with Sexton and 20 other science and policy experts, of a letter published in the journal Science in April urging US and Canadian leadership to address the risks and damages caused by BC mine waste flowing downstream across borders. “This letter highlights the inadequacies of British Columbia’s evaluation and permitting process for massive toxic waste dumps in major salmon-producing transboundary rivers, like the Taku, Stikine-Iskut, and Unuk-Nass river systems,” Weitz said. “BC's mine assessment process leaves Alaskans unprotected because it underestimates the risk of mine failures and contamination and doesn’t rely on independent science.” The weight of all of these threats has spurred a rare bipartisan environmental effort from the Western border state senators. “As you know, Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and Montana have tremendous natural resources that need to be protected against impacts from BC hard rock and coal mining activities near the headwaters of shared rivers,” stated the June 2019 letter to Premier Horgan. At the same time, US environmental groups, businesses, politicians, tribes, and government agencies are pushing for action under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty. That treaty created a regulatory body, the International Joint Commission, which has been active on transboundary issues on shared waterways that connect Ontario and Quebec to US states around the Great Lakes and in New England. The Canadian federal government needs permission from the provincial BC government to allow the IJC to adjudicate these pollution issues in the West—a green light that’s thus far been withheld. BC has memorandums of understanding in place with Alaska and Montana “that suggest [the province has] it under control and the federal Canadian government doesn’t need to engage,” Weitz said. “But we’re doing our best to expose that those MOUs are nonbinding and nonfunded, and the last line in the MOU is that either party may remove itself at any point in time.” The Skagit River has one last hope, though. The 1984 High Ross Treaty, in which Seattle agreed not to raise the Ross Dam on the Skagit and send floodwaters into BC, also created the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) to conserve the watershed—including acquiring lingering mining and timber rights to protect the land. In a positive sign that took place in December, the BC government ordered a halt to logging in the Donut Hole that would have created roads for Imperial Metals’ exploration there. The move bought SEEC time to try to purchase the mineral claims that Imperial Metals currently owns in the hope of extinguishing the threat to mining the Skagit’s headwaters once and for all. The SEEC is currently waiting on a purchase estimate from Imperial Metals as an opening framework for making an offer on the mining claims. “Our people have always told us that we have to think seven generations down in all the decisions we’re making,” Williams said. “That’s why we prioritize our environmental restoration and protection. There is definitely a sense of urgency here.”
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Posted: May 24, 2020By Rich Moy and Ric Hauer
Op-Ed Commentary North Fork of the Flathead River, north of Columbia Falls, MontanaAn international group of science and policy experts from the United States and Canada recently published a letter in the prestigious journal Science voicing concern for the poisoning of U.S. rivers stemming from Canadian headwaters. The source of the contamination? Hard-rock and coal mining. We’ve known about the toxins flowing from British Columbia into downstream states for decades. However, the poisoning of U.S. waters from Canadian mining is about to get dramatically worse and will go on for centuries if it is not stopped, and stopped before it’s too late. The Science article urged immediate action calling on the United States and Canada to jointly invoke the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to resolve several transboundary water disputes. This would not be the first time U.S. citizens have looked to that treaty for protection from British Columbia’s mining industry. In 1985, a science panel convened by the treaty’s International Joint Commission (IJC) concluded that proposed Canadian coal mines along Glacier National Park’s northern border threatened irreparable damage to both the park and to downstream U.S. communities. Additionally, the Commission recommended that no new mine could be built until the impacts could be mitigated to the satisfaction of both countries. That was the last time British Columbia allowed the treaty to be invoked on its borders, despite ongoing transboundary contamination and disputes. For nearly two decades, U.S. regulators, scientists, governors, senators and tribes from all four border states have raised the alarm with British Columbia’s leadership concerning coal mining pollution coming into Montana and Idaho from massive coal mines in the Elk Valley and hard rock mining pollution threatening Washington and Alaska. These concerns have been met with silence and continued “business as usual.” British Columbia’s mining laws are far weaker than those of the United States. Canadian regulators know this. In 2016, British Columbia’s own Auditor General wrote a scathing report of the province’s mining operations in the Kootenai (Kootenay) River headwaters, saying that B.C. was permitting levels of selenium that threatened aquatic life and human health and safety. According to the report, “We found over a decade of neglect in compliance and enforcement program activities within the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and significant deficiencies within the Ministry of Environment’s activities.” In February, the U.S. EPA expressed “serious concerns” about recent data showing mine toxins in downstream U.S. waterways. Despite that trend, Canada is approving mine expansions even as operators acknowledge that they are unable to control mine contamination and will continue to exceed both Canadian and U.S. pollution permits. History shows that the Boundary Waters Treaty has worked effectively for more than a century. Indeed, transboundary water disputes are precisely why the treaty was signed in 1909 – to ensure that the two neighbouring countries would respect one another’s shared waters and protect one another’s communities. It is noteworthy that the IJC has spent considerable effort over the past decade mitigating pollution from U.S. waters that flow north into Canada. Now is the time for Canada to address its pollution that flows south into U.S. waters. The United States is not Canada’s settling pond, and our fisheries and communities should not pay the price for Canadian profits. The time has come to end transboundary mine pollution, to invoke the treaty, and to require mining corporations operating in British Columbia to clean up their mess, in both Canada and U.S. waters, once and for all. We must insist on a prohibition on all new mining permits until Canada proves it can contain and mitigate its current and on-going contamination. We must demand financial assurances that guarantee U.S. taxpayers aren’t left paying the bill to clean up after Canadian companies. Lead image: A ‘brief’ of pelicans in the Kootenai River wetlands north of Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Carrie Schafer/e-KNOW file photo – Rich Moy, spent over 30 years working in water policy, planning and management in Montana and regionally and served as a U.S. Commissioner on the International Joint Commission from 2011 to 2019. – Ric Hauer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Montana and Flathead Lake Biological Station. Both Rich and Ric have worked on Canadian mining issues since the late-1970s. Transboundary mining issues that threaten wild salmon habitat in Southeast Alaska, a matter of concern to indigenous peoples and commercial fishermen on both sides of the border, are attracting more attention from the International Joint Commission.
The IJC is guided by the Boundary Waters Treaty signed into law in 1909 by United States and Canada. That treaty provides general principles for preventing and resolving disputes over waters shared by the two countries and for settling other transboundary issues. The two major responsibilities of the IJC are to approve projects that affect water levels and flows across the boundary and investigating transboundary issues and recommending solutions, taking into account needs for many waterway uses, from drinking water and commercial shipping to fishing, recreational boating and shoreline property. To that end members of the IJC were to meet virtually on Zoom on Thursday, May 14, with indigenous leaders from Alaska, British Columbia, Montana and Idaho, the University of Montana, British Columbia’s First Nationals Energy and Mining Council, the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission and Salmon Beyond Borders. Tribes and First Nations, scientists, businesses, residents and stakeholders on both sides of these rivers have called on the federal governments of both nations to enforce the Boundary Waters Treaty due to the continuing threat of pollution from British Columbia mines planned and in operation. They have asked the U.S. State Department and Global Affairs Canada to honor their mutual obligations to protect these shared transboundary watersheds and establish a binational process involving the tribes and First Nations, according to Salmon Beyond Borders, which issued an announcement about the online meeting this past week. The session was intended to be a starting point for dialogue not only between the IJC commissioners and Alaska tribes, but between indigenous leaders from Alaska, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia to share mutual concerns about water quality, said Jill Weitz, director of Salmon Beyond Borders. Involvement from the IJC must be prompted by political will, and both Global Affairs Canada and the State Department have yet to meaningfully engage on this issue, continuing to defer to the nonbinding memoranda of understanding that British Columbia has secured with downstream US states, Weitz said. “It is alarming still, with how vulnerable our Southeast Alaska fishing communities are right now, that this nonbinding and unfunded MOU Alaska has with B.C. is enough for Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state department,” she said. “In order to move our federal government on this, the state of Alaska must support federal engagement, and until they do, BC is moving forward with multiple projects that rival the size of the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska.” Weitz said she is hopeful that with continued leadership from the Alaska congressional delegation, Alaska tribes and thousands of Alaskans who continue to push for state department involvement that the Dunleavy administration may recognize the need for involvement to stop the potential pollution of salmon habitat in these transboundary waters. https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2020/05/17/indigenous-leaders-connecting-on-transboundary-issues/ Contamination from Teck coal mines in waterways of Elk River watershed is a long-standing problem
Bob Weber · The Canadian Press · Posted: May 11, 2020 7:47 AM PT | Last Updated: May 11 The U.S. government is increasingly concerned about pollution from British Columbian mines, following new research that shows contaminants in a river south of the border came from Canada. In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is demanding the provincial government hand over data explaining why Teck Resources coal mines in southern B.C. are being allowed to exceed guidelines for a toxic heavy metal. "The EPA ... finds it unacceptable that the province has accepted [a treatment plan] that will allow seasonal exceedances of water quality objectives into the future,'' says the Feb. 4 letter to B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman. "An independent review could help facilitate U.S. stakeholder confidence in this new approach.''Contamination from Teck's mines in the rivers of the Elk River watershed is a long-standing problem. Coal mining releases selenium, an element that in large amounts is toxic to wildlife and humans. Reports on selenium concentrations in area waterways show levels up to four times B.C.'s maximum for drinking water. Monitoring stations near the mines have reported levels 50 times what's recommended for aquatic health. Disappearance of rare troutTeck's own research recently reported the near-disappearance of rare cutthroat trout from a 60-kilometre stretch of the Fording River downstream from the company's four mines. That water flows into the cross-border Koocanusa Reservoir. The reservoir drains into the Kootenai River, which flows about 200 kilometres across Montana and Idaho. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey found selenium in that stretch of the Kootenai, but none in its American tributaries. A coal mining operation in Sparwood, B.C. Coal mining releases selenium, an element that in large amounts is toxic to wildlife and humans. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)"The Kootenai River downstream of the Libby Dam is being affected by the Elk Valley mines,'' says the EPA letter. "The study provides validated information that is concerning to U.S. agencies and our state and tribal partners.'' Agency spokesman Richard Mylott said the U.S. is also worried about a new provincially approved water treatment process. "The effectiveness of this new technology ... has not been demonstrated at the geographic scale and multi-decade time scale needed to abate pollution from Elk River coal mines,'' Mylott said in an email. The U.S., he said, wants to judge for itself. "[The agency] ... concluded it would be important to have U.S. mine remediation technical experts independently review the likely effectiveness of this technology.'' B.C. respondsIn a written response, B.C. government spokesperson Jeremy Uppenborn said the province "is working with the U.S. EPA and Teck to provide the requested information.'' A Teck spokesperson has said the company plans to spend more than $1 billion by 2024 to clean up its effluent, and that selenium levels should start to drop by the end of this year. Some scientists say there are similar concerns about other B.C. mining developments. Several projects are being considered for the province's northwest, including the KSM copper/gold mine, which would dig one of the largest holes and build one of the highest dams on Earth. In a recent letter in the journal Science, 22 Canadian and U.S. researchers warned that when it comes to mitigation, mining in Canada often overpromises and underdelivers. "Canada's and B.C.'s environmental assessments have been criticized as being weak,'' said Jonathon Moore, a signatory and professor at Simon Fraser University. "They have been widely criticized as being ineffective and not properly accounting for risk.'' It's time to reconsider how economic reward is evaluated against environmental risk, Moore said. "We want those scales rebalanced and the way to rebalance that is through peer-reviewed science and processes that are inclusive and incorporate cross-border policies.'' Original publication. can be found here. United States increasingly concerned over pollution from B.C. minesMonitoring stations near the mines have reported levels 50 times what’s recommended for aquatic health
In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the Environmental Protection Agency is demanding the provincial government hand over data explaining why Teck Resources coal mines in southern B.C are being allowed to exceed guidelines for a toxic heavy metal. “The EPA … finds it unacceptable that the province has accepted (a treatment plan) that will allow seasonal exceedances of water quality objectives into the future,” says the Feb. 4 letter to B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman. “An independent review could help facilitate U.S. stakeholder confidence in this new approach.” Contamination from Teck’s mines in the rivers of the Elk River watershed is a long-standing problem. Coal mining releases selenium, an element which in large amounts is toxic to wildlife and humans. Reports on selenium concentrations in area waterways show levels up to four times B.C.’s maximum for drinking water. Monitoring stations near the mines have reported levels 50 times what’s recommended for aquatic health. READ MORE: Teck reducing Elk Valley work force by up to 50 per cent Teck’s own research recently reported the near-disappearance of rare cutthroat trout from a 60-kilometre stretch of the Fording River downstream from the company’s four mines. That water flows into the cross-border Koocanusa Reservoir. The reservoir drains into the Kootenai River, which flows about 200 kilometres across Montana and Idaho. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey found selenium in that stretch of the Kootenai, but none in its American tributaries. “The Kootenai River downstream of the Libby Dam is being affected by the Elk Valley mines,” says the EPA letter. “The study provides validated information that is concerning to U.S. agencies and our state and tribal partners.” Agency spokesman Richard Mylott said the U.S. is also worried about a new provincially approved water treatment process. “The effectiveness of this new technology … has not been demonstrated at the geographic scale and multi-decade time scale needed to abate pollution from Elk River coal mines,” he said in an email. The U.S., he said, wants to judge for itself. “(The agency) … concluded it would be important to have U.S. mine remediation technical experts independently review the likely effectiveness of this technology.” In a written response, B.C. environment spokesman Jeremy Uppenborn said the province “is working with the U.S. EPA and Teck to provide the requested information.” A Teck spokesman has said the company plans to spend more than $1 billion by 2024 to clean up its effluent. Doug Brown said selenium levels should start to drop by the end of this year. Some scientists say there are similar concerns about other British Columbia mining developments. Several projects are being considered for the province’s northwest — including the KSM copper/gold mine, which would dig one of the largest holes and build one of the highest dams on Earth. RED MORE: Teck mitigation plan changes cause concern in Elk Valley In a recent letter in the journal Science, 22 Canadian and U.S. researchers warned that when it comes to mitigation, mining in Canada often overpromises and underdelivers. Peer review and transparent reporting are the exception, they wrote. “Canada’s and B.C.’s environmental assessments have been criticized as being weak,” said Jonathon Moore, a signatory and professor at Simon Fraser University. “They have been widely criticized as being ineffective and not properly accounting for risk.” It’s time to reconsider how economic reward is evaluated against environmental risk, Moore said. “We want those scales rebalanced and the way to rebalance that is through peer-reviewed science and processes that are inclusive and incorporate cross-border policies.” Bob Weber, The Canadian Press Letter to the Editor
Nearly two dozen North American scientists and policy experts recently commented on the dangerous ecological shortfalls resulting from B.C. mining practices in the scientific journal Science. As hunters and anglers with a focus on clean waters and intact wilderness and wildlife, we’re deeply concerned. The article points out the significant damages and risks posed by mining practices to downstream communities, particularly those in transboundary watersheds shared by B.C. and U.S states like Montana, Alaska, Idaho and Washington. The article implores, “rather than a race to the bottom, we urge our governments to honour their mutual obligations to protect our shared transboundary waters, as codified in the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.” We couldn’t agree more with this reasonable request. We ask our elected officials to use their influence to ensure that mining policy in transboundary watersheds protects water quality, riparian habitat and human health; these mining policies should have parity across the international border. Without this common sense approach, we fear that, indeed, U.S. and Canadian mining policy will move in the opposite direction in a “race to the bottom” negatively impacting everything from human health and drinking water to your favourite hunting and fishing haunts. Canadian and American governments both have the responsibility to protect our shared environment, including the water, air and wildlife. The article refers to several shortfalls in the mining assessment process. Perhaps we’ve been too lax in assuming we can take the government’s fulfillment of its responsibility for granted? The term “government capture” describes the condition when a government allows industry to design or strongly influence law and operating rules. This is a shortsighted approach to managing our shared environment and can lead to huge environmental and financial burdens on the public. We would like to see mine assessments founded upon independent, transparent and peer-reviewed science and incorporated downstream to fully capture the transboundary environmental concerns. Bad rules make for bad results. Water gets polluted, local waters and wildlife habitat get degraded, and citizens and taxpayers pick up the cost of reclamation, remediation and mitigation that can cost into the many millions of dollars and last for decades or centuries. This isn’t what sportsmen want, and this isn’t what society wants. On both sides of the border, we need to address the shortcomings of mining policy. This can start now with voice of concerned citizens coming together on this important issue. We’re asking our local, regional and national leaders to take steps to improve mining policy to ensure the protection of water, riparian habitat, and human health for all transboundary watersheds. We don’t expect the problems to be solved overnight. But a good-faith collaboration between the U.S. and Canada must begin now, and good data, transparency and the public good must outweigh narrower self-interests. For those interested in reading the Science commentary, please follow this link. Bill Hanlon, (Sparwood) Co-Chair of the BC Chapter and a member on the board of directors of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; Ryan Busse (Montana), North American Board Chair for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers https://www.e-know.ca/regions/east-kootenay/mining-policies-in-transboundary-watersheds-must-improve/ Published by University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
A number of UW researchers have joined an international group of science and policy experts to publish a joint commentary in the journal Science, calling on U.S. and Canadian leaders to address damages and risks caused by Canadian mine pollution flowing downstream into U.S. states. Led by researchers at the University of Montana, the cohort included five graduates and one PhD candidate from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS). The letter examines Canada’s environmental assessment and regulation of large-scale industrial mines in transboundary watersheds. “Environmental baseline datasets, with which mine permitting decisions are made, are frequently insufficient and underpredict environmental impacts mines ultimately impose,” said co-author Sarah O’Neal, a UW SAFS PhD candidate in the Schindler lab. O’Neal’s current research highlights the importance of establishing transparent and peer-reviewed environmental baseline data for critical salmon habitat at the Pebble Mine site in southwest Alaska. She explains the permitting and operation of mines within transboundary watersheds are further complicated by jurisdictional and political factors. “Pollution from mining activity, if not properly predicted, monitored, and mitigated, can cause severe environmental degradation downstream,” she said. “Mining activities are a major source of pollution throughout the western U.S., including in Washington state, where salmon runs are already experiencing historic lows.” The complete letter can be found on the Science journal’s website. This article was adapted from a University of Montana press release. Western News, May 1, 2020 8:33 AM
One study published last year found elevated levels of selenium in the eggs of mountain whitefish collected from three sites on the Kootenai River downstream of the Libby Dam. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey found that six of the eight samples taken in September 2018 from mountain whitefish eggs exceeded EPA’s water quality recommendations for selenium. In February, a letter from EPA Region 8 to two officials in British Columbia cited heightened concerns about water quality in Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai watershed. The EPA letter noted that research has indicated that the Kootenai River downstream of Libby Dam is being affected by pollutants from Elk Valley coal mines in British Columbia. And it sought information about a new water treatment approach touted by the primary polluter, Teck Resources. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality, EPA and other agencies have long been concerned about rising selenium levels in Lake Koocanusa tied to pollution from open pit coal mines operated by Teck upstream in British Columbia. State Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, acknowledged unease about selenium pollution in Lake Koocanusa and evidence of pollution downstream of the Libby Dam. “It is a very serious concern,” Cuffe said Tuesday. “But it’s not an immediate thing to panic over.” He said the selenium levels might have aquatic impacts but do not pose a danger to humans. He said people who read about the coal mines and the selenium pollution downstream occasionally overreact. But Dave Hadden of Headwaters Montana referenced a letter in the April issue of the journal Science that was signed by a host of scientists and policy experts. The letter warned of increasing risks to Montana, Washington, Idaho and Alaska from transboundary mining operations. “The stakes are high,” the authors wrote. “Upstream Canadian mines threaten downstream economies, waters, and ways of life.” Hadden said the stakes are especially high for northwest Montana. “If ever there were a neighborhood of communities that did not need more mining waste flowing in from upstream, it’s Libby and Troy and Lincoln County,” Hadden said. “They can’t afford to be Canada’s settling pond. Our taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing Canada’s economy by paying to clean up their mess.” Southern British Columbia has large reserves of high-grade metallurgical coal, which is mined and shipped globally by Teck Resources to steel manufacturers. The coal resides deep within mountainous terrain along the Elk River Valley and large quantities of overburden remain as part of the mining. “Selenium leaches out of this waste rock and into the Elk River, a tributary of the Kootenai River which forms Lake Koocanusa,” according to DEQ. Selenium is a naturally occurring element present in sedimentary rocks, shales, coal and phosphate deposits and soils. It can be a nutritionally essential element for animals in small amounts but toxic at higher concentrations. DEQ has reported that selenium becomes concentrated in the food chain, particularly in lakes, and “is known to compromise reproduction in certain species of fish.” Cuffe said that he and Lincoln County commissioners Jerry Bennett and Josh Letcher visited Teck Coal and toured a water treatment facility. “There is a tremendous amount of money being spent and a tremendous amount of technology involved,” Cuffe said. He said he got the impression Teck is committed to reducing selenium pollution from the mines. Teck says it has developed a Saturated Rock Fill water treatment facility that “is achieving near complete removal of selenium and nitrate.” The process injects water for treatment into former mining areas backfilled with rock. Then, Teck says, “natural bacteria convert dissolved forms of selenium into a solid form which remains securely stored in the SRF and nitrate to inert nitrogen gas which is safely released.” The Feb. 4 letter from the EPA sought information about the Saturated Rock Fill process and its efficacy. The letter was addressed to George Heyman, minister of environment and climate change strategy, and Bruce Ralston, minister of energy, mines and petroleum reserves. “We believe it is critical that U.S. federal agencies could have the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of this new proposed mitigation approach by reviewing the available evaluation and documentation of the results of SRF deployment conducted to date by Teck Resources and their consultants,” the EPA wrote. The agency said an independent review of the performance of Saturated Rock Fill approach “could help facilitate U.S. stakeholder confidence in the effectiveness of this new approach and build upon the collaboration established between our agencies.” On Wednesday, Chris Stannell, a spokesman for Teck Resources, said the company has responded to the EPA’s request. “We have provided EPA with comprehensive information on the Saturated Rock Fill water treatment technology in response to their request, including data on the performance of the technology and how it can help to achieve water quality objectives more quickly and efficiently than other forms of treatment,” Stannell said in an email. Stannell said use of the Saturated Rock Fill technology has been endorsed by the British Columbia government. He said Teck has received approval to double the current Saturated Rock Fill water treatment capacity at its Elkview Operations. “Our SRF at Elkview has been successfully operating since January 2018, treating up to 10 million litres per day and achieving near-complete removal of nitrate and selenium from mine-impacted waters,” Stannell added. A spokeswoman for EPA Region 8 did not respond by press time as to whether the agency has received and reviewed Teck’s material Stannell said Teck is also developing a new method to reduce release of nitrate by using liners that prevent explosives with nitrates from coming into contact with water. In 2015, DEQ and British Columbia’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy established the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group. The group’s mission is to study and address current and future water quality concerns in the Lake Koocanusa watershed and “to work towards joint solutions for managing potential selenium contamination including development of site specific criteria for the protection of uses of the lake.” Participants in the working group include DEQ, EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Native American Tribes from the U.S. and Canada. |
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