Environmental concerns are renewed regarding the possibility of fish-harming contamination from Canadian open-pit mines entering Montana lakes via waterways.
PABLO, Mont. — Over the years, fish with deformed cranium and contorted spines have been captured in the mountain streams of southern British Columbia and northern Montana, a harsh region of the world.
Numerous scientists attribute the disfigured animals and declines in certain fish populations to the five immense open-pit coal mines that interrupt this dense forest inhabited by grizzly bears and wolves.
For decades, these mines owned by Teck Resources, a multinational mining company based in Canada, have been the subject of environmental concerns due to the leaching of chemicals such as selenium, a byproduct of mining, into mountain rivers that flow through Indigenous land and across the border into U.S. waterways.
Selenium is an essential trace element that occurs naturally in the environment. However, selenium pollution has long been acknowledged as a highly dangerous byproduct of coal extraction. In higher concentrations, the chemical accumulates in the eggs and reproductive organs of fish and animals, causing a variety of negative effects, such as decreased reproduction, deformities, and mortality. The danger to human health posed by consuming contaminated fish is poorly understood.
Teck has repeatedly contested various state and federal regulatory standards regarding what levels of selenium in waterways should be considered safe. In addition, these limits vary by country and body of water, complicating oversight efforts.
from Teck’s mines are harming fish, birds and waterways.
The most recent case involves Montana and Idaho, where environmentalists are waging a legal campaign regarding the 2020 levels set by Montana for Lake Koocanusa. Its state standard is being contested as a debate rages over cross-border pollution of the waterways, part of the conflict between regulators, tribal nations, and scientists versus Teck over whether the levels constitute a threat to aquatic life.
In 2020, a group of scientists warned of transboundary contamination from Canadian mines and criticised what they and others attributed to a lack of regulatory supervision in a letter published in the journal Science. “Mine assessment and permitting do not require the incorporation of transparent, independent, peer-reviewed science,” the authors wrote. In Canada, they stated, “Teck’s Elk Valley permit permits contaminant discharges up to sixty-five times higher than the scientifically determined fish protection thresholds.”
They urged the Canadian and American governments to initiate bilateral negotiations through the International Joint Commission, despite the failure of previous appeals.
President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged in March to reach an agreement by the summer of this year to reduce and mitigate water pollution in the Elk-Tennessee watershed. In the future months, U.S. and Canadian officials are reportedly engaged in discussions to establish a bilateral process.
The company stated in its annual report for 2022 that it was continuing to “engage with U.S. regulators to establish appropriate science-based standards for the reservoir.” In addition, the company noted that there are other lakes in Montana with naturally elevated selenium concentrations.
However, Montana scientists do not recognise Teck’s assessments or assertions of lake levels that span the international boundary. The selenium concentration in the Kootenai River has not decreased, according to environmentalists.
At the location where the Kootenai River empties into Lake Koocanusa in Canada, levels have consistently increased well above those benchmarks, according to Erin Sexton, a senior scientist at the Yellow Bay Biological Station on Flathead Lake, which is operated by the University of Montana. She said, “It’s a hockey-stick graph; it just goes up and up.”
The provincial government has “robust monitoring and assessment programmes in place” that have not detected any adverse effects.
The lawsuit filed by environmentalists seeks to preserve the stricter Montana standard, which has been criticised by Republican-led legislators and some state agency officials. In its annual report, Teck questioned whether the lower limit was in effect, presumably due to the dispute between state officials.
The selenium standard for rivers in the United States is 1.5 micrograms per litre in lakes and 3.1 in moving rivers. The standard for Lake Koocanusa in Montana was set at 0.8 after six years of research. The level for aquatic life protection in British Columbia is 2.
Tracing the contaminants in the waterway
When precipitation falls or snow evaporates, mine refuse rock leaches selenium into waterways. The levels of selenium in the Fording and Elk Rivers in British Columbia near the mines have occasionally exceeded provincial standards by a factor of many. Selenium levels decimated a population of genetically pure cutthroat trout in the Fording River, at least in part. Under Canada’s Fisheries Act, Teck was fined a record $60 million in 2021 for releasing selenium into the Fording River.
The Elk River flows 140 miles from its source to Lake Koocanusa, which was created by the damming of the border-spanning Kootenai River. Below the Libby Dam in Montana and Idaho, the lake becomes the Kootenai River once more, and it flows back north into Kootenai Lake in British Columbia. Ultimately, it flows into the Columbia River.
In contrast to the effects of an oil spill, the presence of elevated selenium levels does not result in the abrupt appearance of large numbers of dead fish in the water. Instead, selenium poisoning reduces fish populations by inducing larval mortality.
Ms. Sexton stated, “It is a particularly noxious contaminant because it causes malformations in reproductive organs.” “They refer to it as an invisible contaminant because it inhibits their growth. There are no embryos that do not hatch.”
Native American property concerns
U.S. and tribal officials assert that the presence of chemical contamination caused by mining violates the International Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. Tribal leaders in the United States assert that it may violate their 1855 treaty rights, which guarantee “fishing in all usual and customary locations.” They want the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian body tasked with resolving trans-boundary disputes, to investigate the situation and make recommendations for remediation.
However, the British Columbia government has continued to oppose efforts to rectify the situation, according to Montana officials.
Part of the problem, according to Ms. Sexton, is that the province of British Columbia permits industries, such as mining corporations, to primarily self-monitor and provide evidence produced by their own scientists.
Mr. Stannell noted that the company had spent $1.2 billion on wastewater treatment near the mines and planned to invest an additional $750 million in the future years to enhance water quality.
A region abundant in coal
This Canadian province began coal mining more than a century ago, but in the 1980s, underground mining was primarily abandoned in favour of exposed pits.
Cross-valley fill is used to mine high-grade metallurgical coal, analogous to the mountaintop-removal technique used in West Virginia and other states. For the purpose of exposing coal deposits, explosive charges are used to remove the mountain range’s entire summit. The coal is extracted using enormous excavators and 550-ton dump vehicles, then transported by rail to Vancouver and then by ship to Asia, where it is essential for steel production.
Other mining-related pollutants include cadmium, sulphates, and nitrates, experts say, due in part to the extensive use of explosives during excavation.
Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria and co-author of a 2021 report, accused the governments of British Columbia and Canada of neglecting to regulate Teck intentionally.
Mr. Sandborn stated, “Had they heeded the warnings of their scientists years ago, they would have dealt with this issue.” They did not because the corporation is too large to fail.
According to the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, British Columbia permits Teck to continue operating its mines so long as selenium levels are stabilised and reduced after 2030.
Scientists are concerned that existing mining may contaminate rivers for centuries. Some believe that the technology does not exist to remove enough selenium from rivers and groundwater to reach safe levels. Ms. Sexton stated that Teck could do more to isolate the refuse rock contaminants.
In their territory, the Kootenai/Ktunaxa tribes have worked to protect water quality and fisheries. Bonners Ferry, Idaho’s Kootenai band has a long-term programme to restore burbot to the Kootenai River. Before the tribe constructed a hatchery to rear fish for reintroduction into the river, the long, eel-like fish with white, delicate flesh was on the verge of extinction and vital for subsistence fishing. Selenium has now been discovered in the salmon there.
In recent years, whitefish populations below the Libby Dam, which created Lake Koocanusa, have declined significantly. Monitoring in 2018 revealed that populations, which are typically 700 fish per 1,000 feet, decreased by 53% in 2018 and 55% in 2023. Fish embryos and ovaries contain selenium concentrations that exceed state and federal guidelines.
Jim Dunnigan, a fisheries biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks who is investigating the contamination, believes that the selenium from the mines is the probable cause of the decline. It is cause for grave concern.
Wyatt Petryshen of the Canadian environmental group Wildsight, which monitors Teck’s operations, stated that environmentalists are concerned about Teck’s recent decision to divide its operations into Teck Metals Corp. and Elk Valley Resources, which will own the coal-mining operation.
“There are very real concerns that Teck is trying to spin off the company in order to avoid paying for environmental damages while maintaining cash flow to their metal mining business,” Mr. Petryshen stated.
Sheila Murray, the chairwoman of Teck’s board of directors, defended the change by asserting that it would be more profitable for shareholders and “support a sustainable future for the benefit of employees, local communities, and Indigenous peoples.”
Officials and advocates from the United States asserted that the International Joint Commission, a bilateral organisation, would be the best authority to explore methods to contain and reduce mining-related pollutants. Mr. Sandborn stated, “We need a scientific advisory panel comprised of both American and Canadian scientists.” “We need to get this to the International Joint Commission so that we have a proper watchdog.”
Jennifer Savage, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, which oversees the United States’ position in the commission, stated that the United States wished for the international body to take up the issue as quickly as possible.
Indigenous communities along the watershed depend on these waters for cultural and physical survival, according to the director of the department’s office of Canadian affairs, Ms. Savage. “We’re restless. Certainly, we are anxious to find a solution.”
