January 22, 2020
​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNEAU—It was with interest that Salmon Beyond Borders learned Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy is in Vancouver for the Association for Mineral Exploration conference this week to tout Alaska mining, and that British Columbia’s transboundary mining will be a topic of discussion for Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang. Lest the administration forget, Alaskans are demanding binding protections from Canada’s mines.
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“Alaska tribes, fishermen, municipalities, and thousands of residents have made clear that B.C.’s large-scale open pit mines near the Taku, Stikine/Iskut, and Unuk/Nass rivers, many of which have insanely massive tailings dams at their headwaters, pose direct downstream threats to our salmon, jobs, and way of life,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Director Jill Weitz. “As a new series of maps show, B.C.’s gold-rush era mining laws allow whole watersheds to be staked for exploitation without a consideration of cumulative effects. Unfortunately, what we see in the media and understand from British Columbia’s government is that the State of Alaska has been downplaying Alaskans’ and the Congressional Delegation’s concerns regarding the need for financial assurances and binding protections for the downstream communities that depend upon our billion dollar fisheries and visitor industries. Southeast Alaska has nothing to gain but everything to lose from these Canadian projects.”

In a July 2019 op-ed, Commissioners Corri Feige (Alaska Department of Natural Resources), Doug Vincent-Lang (ADF&G) and Jason Brune (Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation), all of whom are also in Vancouver for the mining conference, confirmed that “Alaska remains committed to maintaining both high water quality standards and responsible mineral development in the transboundary waters.” In a May 6, 2019 letter, Governor Dunleavy confirmed that when it comes to transboundary engagement, “the Governor’s Office continues to take the lead on behalf of the State of Alaska.”

“Southeast Alaska tribes, communities, and the Alaska delegation are all deeply concerned about impacts from B.C. mines and the province's track record, which is far from ‘responsible’” Weitz continued. “That lack of responsibility is clear from, in many instances, the lack of consent from First Nations; ongoing acid mine drainage from the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine in the Taku River watershed, which B.C. has failed to solve for six decades; and the lack of accountability and oversight responsible for the Mount Polley tailings dam disaster — Canada’s worst environmental disaster — which flooded 6.6 billion gallons of mine waste into the Fraser River watershed and has still resulted in no charges against the mine’s owner, Imperial Metals. If Governor Dunleavy is truly at the helm, he must not follow B.C. and B.C. mining companies’ lead. Instead, the Governor and the Commissioners must amplify concerns from thousands of Alaskans, including our Congressional Delegation, commercial and sport fishing powerhouses, business owners, and Southeast tribes. For Southeast Alaska, Mount Polley is not an abstraction. It is a nightmare to be avoided.”

Salmon Beyond Borders is a campaign driven by sport and commercial fishermen, community leaders, tourism and recreation business owners, and concerned citizens, in collaboration with Tribes and First Nations. We are united across the Alaska/British Columbia border to defend and sustain our transboundary rivers, jobs, and way of life.

Contacts:
Jill Weitz
Director
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org 

JUNEAU — Salmon Beyond Borders thanks Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Representative Don Young, Governor Bill Walker, and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott for their October 2, 2018 letter urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. Department of State to act to defend Alaskan interests, salmon, and salmon-producing rivers from under-regulated mining activity in transboundary British Columbian / Alaskan watersheds.

The request follows up on a November 13, 2017 letter from the lawmakers to then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with similar asks. This letter, however, specifically requests the State Department deliver this “strong message” to Global Affairs Canada at the U.S.-Canada bilateral meetings later this month in Ottawa.​​
The letter also reiterates “that the Department’s representatives impress upon their Canadian counterparts the critical need for binding protections, joint water quality monitoring, and financial assurances to protect Americans downstream of large-scale Canadian mines.”

Salmon Beyond Borders Campaign Director Jill Weitz said she was thrilled the letter urges those actions, specifically. ​
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“The development of large-scale open-pit B.C. mines in watersheds that flow into Alaska is moving forward at a mind-blowing pace, while the cleanup of mines like the bankrupt Tulsequah Chief, which has been polluting the Taku River watershed for more than 60 years, is at a seemingly constant stand-still. With the uncertainties regarding Imperial Metals' financial standing, we need enforceable protections now, before the Red Chris mine goes bankrupt and begins polluting the Stikine River on a far greater scale,” she said. “This unity and leadership from Senator Murkowski, Senator Sullivan, Representative Young, Governor Walker, and Lt. Governor Mallott during otherwise politically divisive times is in direct response to their constituents. Fishermen, tribes, businesses, municipalities, and nearly 10,000 Alaskans have called for these measures to help ensure Alaskan economies and ways of life stay healthy for generations to come."

 
 
Jill Weitz
Campaign Director
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org

August 21, 2018
PRESS RELEASE

Joint state, congressional letter well-intentioned but misses the target
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Salmon Beyond Borders thanks Sen. Dan Sullivan and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott for their July 31 letter to Global Affairs Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada about transboundary mining in shared British Columbia and Alaska watersheds. However, the two seem to have lost sight of the heart of the issue: the need for binding international agreements and financial assurances to protect shared waters. Instead, the letter urges the continued pursuit of non-binding understandings that hinder real action and liability.

Though each issue Sullivan and Mallott identify is significant, the letter omits any mention of financial assurance policies that will ensure mines can clean up disasters in shared watersheds, or that the mines have enough money set aside for reclamation and long-term maintenance. All of the transboundary mines under development in B.C. will have to be treated “in perpetuity” to remove heavy metals  that will poison salmon — another way to say “forever.” As just two examples of B.C.’s lax requirements, Teck Resources has been required to post more money in financial assurances for its one Alaska mine than for all five of its B.C. coal mines that drain into Montana, despite the fact they are actively killing fish in downstream U.S. rivers — and Canadian taxpayers ended up paying for $40 million of the cleanup after Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley disaster in the Fraser River watershed, which flows into the ocean just north of the Washington state line.

“Senator Sullivan and Lt. Governor Mallott have been strong  for our transboundary rivers, but at the same time,  they are letting the B.C. government set the terms, while Alaskans are the ones at risk of losing everything,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Campaign Director Jill Weitz. “While officials on both sides of the border dither, B.C. continues to permit and encourage transboundary mines that don’t follow the recommendations of their own auditor general or the independent review panel after the Mount Polley disaster. We don’t need more conversation about conversation. We need binding financial assurances and action under the Boundary Waters Treaty, and we need leaders like Sullivan and Mallott to keep rattling the cages.”
 
Contact:
Jill Weitz
Campaign Director
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org

July 11, 2018
 
PRESS STATEMENT

U.S. IJC commissioners call out Canadian commissioners for repressing data on
B.C. mine pollution of transboundary U.S. rivers

 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.

 In the recent letter, dated June 20, U.S. Section Chair Lana Pollack and U.S. Section Commissioner Rich Moy said the Canadian commissioners refused to certify a report six years in the making on selenium pollution’s effect in the Elk-Kootenai watershed in Montana. Instead, Canadian commissioners chose to use a report from the 1980s, which does not include data on selenium.

Teck Coal, operating in B.C. along the Montana border, has been fined for releasing selenium into the Elk-Kootenai watershed far beyond levels considered safe. Furthermore, B.C. authorized Teck Coal to shut down its water treatment plant because it was actually making the problem worse by creating and releasing a form of selenium that kills fish. Selenium pollution from Teck mines has killed a significant percentage of trout in the Elk River — up to 50 percent in some parts of the watershed, according to the letter — deformed them, and rendered them sterile. In spite of these violations, the B.C. government has recently issued expansion permits to Teck’s existing mines in the transboundary Elk-Kootenai watershed.

 “Ground contamination with selenium will only get worse… and will last for centuries in the Elk-Kootenai watershed,” the commissioners wrote. “There is a question as to whether the technology even exists to remove selenium from large volumes of flowing water and there is no viable solution to remove selenium from groundwater.”

 Due to the geology of Northwest B.C. and the quantity of hard rock B.C. proposes to mine along the Alaska border, all of the more than a dozen mines operating or proposed in the area, including Imperial Metals’ operating Red Chris mine and Seabridge Gold’s proposed KSM mine, will require selenium treatment not only during their operation, but forever after their closure.

 “Mining regulation in B.C. appears to be a case of the fox guarding the henhouse,” said Heather Hardcastle, Salmon Beyond Borders campaign advisor. “The U.S. IJC commissioners have highlighted how Canada and B.C. have abdicated their duties to the Boundary Waters Treaty. The U.S. must defend our resources before it’s too late. We look to Gov. Bill Walker, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, and the Alaska congressional delegation to continue pushing the U.S. Department of State to demand of Canada binding protections and financial assurances for U.S. interests in U.S.-B.C. watersheds.”

 “This kind of damage to fish and their habitat — death by a thousand cuts — is what we are fighting to prevent here in Southeast Alaska,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Campaign Director Jill Weitz. “We are so grateful to the U.S. commissioners for doing their job to defend U.S. interests and for drawing attention to this data, Canadian commissioners’ repression of it, and the B.C. government’s complicity in it all. Alaska needs federal intervention now, before we’re dealing with salmon deformities and infertility in the Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers.”

Contacts:
Jill Weitz
Campaign Director
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org

Heather Hardcastle
Campaign Advisor                 
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 209-8486
heather@salmonstate.org

June 25, 2018
 
PRESS STATEMENT

Thank you, Senator Lisa Murkowski, for defending Alaska’s transboundary rivers, jobs, and way of life.

JUNEAU— Salmon Beyond Borders thanks Senator Lisa Murkowski for her efforts to ensure Southeast Alaska’s transboundary rivers remain productive for salmon and Alaskans.

Following the 2018 Omnibus Spending Bill, Congress, with Senator Murkowski’s leadership, directed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to work with local tribes and agencies “to develop a water quality strategy for transboundary rivers impacted by mining activities” in the Alaska/British Columbia transboundary region.

In a recent Interior-Environment committee bill, $1.5 million was appropriated to fund stream gauges that measure transboundary river water quality in U.S. states bordering British Columbia. That includes a gauge along the Unuk River near Ketchikan, a river to which Seabridge Gold’s massive proposed Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project poses threats.

“This is a vote to support clean air, water, our lands, and our people,” Murkowski, chairwoman of the Interior-Environment Subcommittee, told E&E News.

“Eighty percent of Southeast Alaska king salmon come from the transboundary Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers, yet B.C. is pushing 'go' on more than a dozen mines in these watersheds. It’s imperative we have good, reliable science documenting the quality of these rivers so that we can hold the Canadian government accountable for downstream impacts to U.S. resources,” said Salmon Beyond Borders Director Jill Weitz. “Senator Murkowski’s leadership is huge for this important work, and we look forward to the USGS collaborating with tribes and state agencies that are already on the ground.”

The bill has passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee and now moves on to the next step in the process.

Senator Murkowski's press statement can be found here.
 
Contact:
Jill Weitz
Campaign Director
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org ​

June 6, 2018
 
PRESS RELEASE

At transboundary dialogue, officials talk process when Alaskans want action

JUNEAU— Abandoned, operating and planned mines on transboundary rivers in British Columbia pose active threats to — or are actively polluting — waters shared by B.C. and Alaska. Meanwhile, State of Alaska and Province of B.C. officials talk “process” — a word that has so far meant anything but action. A June 1 “Transboundary Partners Dialogue” co-hosted by the State of Alaska, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and Sealaska, offered more of the same.

 “A process without a binding commitment to action is not much more than a wish,” said Salmon Beyond Borders campaign manager Jill Weitz.

 Needed actions include the prompt cleanup and closure of the Tulsequah Chief mine in the Taku River watershed, binding financial assurances to cover the costs of all mining impacts prior to mine operations, and the development of a robust, transparent environmental review process for mining projects in transboundary watersheds.

 “The lack of progress over many years, despite people’s stated good intentions, plainly shows we need a better framework for this issue,” said Heather Hardcastle, Salmon Beyond Borders campaign director. “These are international watersheds protected by international treaties and shared by many different jurisdictions — U.S., Canadian and indigenous. We need to do things differently in B.C.-Alaska watersheds.”

Tulsequah Chief mine: Despite repeated promises from former Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett, who visited Juneau in 2015, the Tulsequah Chief Mine, abandoned in 1957, is still releasing acid mine drainage into the Taku River. “It’s three years later. We hear from everybody that there’s concern, and nothing’s happening, and that’s a frustrating thing,” said Rep. Dan Ortiz, I-Ketchikan, at the dialogue. Karina Sangha, Senior First Nations Advisor at the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources, agreed that the province does have the ability to hold historical owner Teck Resources liable. There was no promise, however, that any owner, current or historical, would be.

Financial assurances: One of the things Alaskans have always wanted from B.C. mines are binding financial assurances not only for reclamation, but for catastrophes like Mount Polley. Teck Resources has had to put up more money in financial assurances for its one Alaska mine, Red Dog, than for all 13 of its mines in British Columbia, according to “Canadian Mines on Transboundary Rivers: The Need for Financial Assurances,” a March 2017 report to the Alaska State Legislature from B.C. economist Robyn Allan. In a separate report, she found B.C. taxpayers are on the hook for $1.5 billion in unfunded mine disaster and reclamation cleanup. B.C. and Alaska officials will be meeting in August to talk more about financial assurances.

B.C.’s environmental assessment process: B.C. officials have repeatedly said their environmental assessment process was “under review.” At the meeting, Alaskans replied that transboundary watersheds require more transparency, responsiveness to comments, and Alaskan input — especially because almost all of planned mines in transboundary watersheds require toxic tailings storage and water treatment in perpetuity. Those mines should undergo the highest level of review.

Selenium pollution: Selenium causes death, deformities and infertility in fish, and no one knows how to treat it at the level necessary for large mines. The Elk-Kootenai river system shared by B.C. and Montana is already seeing fish deformities from Teck Resources’ coal mines in B.C., which is releasing selenium at more than 50 times the level that is safe for aquatic life. “Ultimately, this is our fear. This is our concern,” Ortiz told B.C. officials. “I’m talking about long after you and I are gone. Nobody wants to see that happen.”

Inter-state cooperation: Ortiz, along with nine other Alaska state legislators, recently sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Gov. Bill Walker requesting that Alaska work with Montana, Idaho, and Washington governments. Those states are also dealing with downstream pollution from B.C. mines. At the dialogue, Mallott told Ortiz that “we’ll work with anyone.”


Contacts:
Heather Hardcastle
Campaign Director                    
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 209-8486
heather@salmonstate.org

Jill Weitz
Campaign Manager
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org ​

April 18, 2018
 
MEDIA ADVISORY

Canadian mine pollution of U.S. watersheds a top priority for State Department negotiators at U.S.-Canada bilateral meetings

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. State Department is poised to address, with Global Affairs Canada, years of British Columbia (B.C.) mines polluting American watersheds. Acid mine drainage and toxins from Canada in rivers that flow into Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Washington are damaging U.S. interests and are a significant part of the April 26, Washington, D.C. bilateral meetings — discussions of the most urgent diplomatic issues between the two countries.

A delegation of fishermen and advocates from Alaska and Montana will be in D.C. to support strong U.S. federal government actions to protect fish and jobs in these watersheds. They are available for in-person interviews and editorial board meetings from April 23-26.

BACKGROUND

Transboundary rivers in Alaska are home to some of the planet’s last remaining wild salmon strongholds and are the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar regional commercial fishing and tourism economy. In Montana, transboundary rivers form the headwaters of the vast Columbia River system, which is the economic lifeblood coursing through all of the contiguous Pacific Northwest states.

B.C., with the support of the Canadian federal government, is fast-tracking the exploration and approval of new mines along Alaska’s transboundary Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers, as well as mineral exploration in Washington’s Skagit River watershed.

Upstream of Montana and Idaho, Canadian coal companies are pressing for new and expanded mines in the transboundary Elk-Kootenai River system. This is despite the fact that B.C.’s abandoned and operational mines there already have degraded water quality, damaged the region’s famed fishery, and limited the watershed’s potential to create U.S. jobs.

U.S. citizens point to the Kootenai and more than 60 years of acid mine drainage from Canada’s now defunct Tulsequah Chief Mine in Alaska’s Taku River watershed as prime examples of reckless B.C. mining practices. They also point to the 2014 failure of a tailings dam at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine in B.C.’s Fraser River watershed, just north of the B.C.-Washington border, and the scathing independent report that found the dam operated for years with fatal design flaws.

B.C.’s own Auditor General has declared that the province fails to adequately monitor the mining industry, with “almost every one of our expectations for a robust compliance and enforcement program… not met.” These stark regulatory flaws place at risk Canada’s obligations under the U.S-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty, which states that waters flowing across the border shall not be polluted to the injury of health or property in the neighboring country.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) recently passed into law a requirement that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency negotiate a solution to the Montana transboundary pollution problem. Also, Tester, Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Gov. Bill Walker (I-AK) and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott (D-AK) have worked with the State Department to initiate a binational analysis of mining operations in transboundary waters, which will be discussed April 26.

Contacts:

Heather Hardcastle
Campaign Director                    
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 209-8486
heather@salmonstate.org

Michael Jamison
Crown of the Continent Senior Program Manager
National Parks Conservation Association
1 (406) 250-2540
mjamison@npca.org

Jill Weitz
Campaign Manager
Salmon Beyond Borders
1 (907) 957-9504
jill@salmonstate.org
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Dave Hadden
Executive Director
Headwaters Montana, Inc.
1 (406) 270-3184
dave_hadden@headwatersmontana.org

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