Tribes are cautiously optimistic about new deal on pollution from Canadian mines

In a six-seater plane at the Kalispell airport, Erin Sexton with the Flathead Biological Station is going over the flight plan just before takeoff.

“So we’re going to fly up over the Montana-North Fork crossing into British Columbia,” Sexton said.

She’s our guide as we fly over the Canadian Rockies and five open-pit coal mines that span multiple peaks along B.C.’s Elk River. She points down to the Coal Mountain Mine run by Teck Resources.

The mountaintop blasted away by dynamite exposes coal seams. Even at 10,000 feet, you can see huge trucks hauling away rock.

“All of the waste dumps where you can see the mined rock and water pits, these will permanently leach into the Fording and Elk Rivers,” Sexton said.

High levels of selenium leach from the waste rock. As mining company Teck Resources works to expand mining in the Elk Valley, it says it treats water that flows back into the rivers, reducing pollution.

But water samples show selenium levels still exceed federal standards in Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River in Montana and Idaho.

Sexton says selenium acts on the reproductive organs of wildlife and leads to deformed fish and unviable eggs.

Aaron Bolton

Tribes on both sides of the border, along with Montana officials, have for years been calling for an agreement to protect the water. This month, the U.S. and Canada agreed to a deal in that could reduce pollution flowing downstream from British Columbia coal mines. The agreement calls upon the International Joint Commission (IJC), which settles disputes under the U.S.-Canada Boundary Waters Treaty.

B.C. officials and the Canadian federal government have resisted calls to get the IJC involved, until now.

“We have reviewed the proposal for a reference to the International Joint Commission and British Columbia is committed to fully engage in this process,” the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said.

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Chairman Tom McDonald says tribes will have seats on the governing board set up by the deal. That’s a first. McDonald hopes the board will recommend a reduced mining footprint in the Elk Valley. But there’s no guarantee that will happen.

“You could have the IJC all aboard and say we want you to do this, this and this, this recipe of 10 things, and only half of them get implemented. That’s a distinct possibility,” McDonald said.

That’s because the IJC only makes recommendations. But those recommendations do carry political weight.

In the 1980s, IJC commissioners said a coal mine in the headwaters of the Flathead River couldn’t be developed without ecological harm. B.C agreed. Guy Archibald, head of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission has watched the IJC closely, and says the decision may be why provincial officials have resisted IJC involvement since.

McDonald says the Canadian government agreeing to call on the international body again is a big deal.

“It’s really critical that this becomes a success, that this can become a template for how we move into the future, especially with Canadian government,” McDonald said.

B.C. officials say they support IJC involvement to address the “complexity of pollution concerns in this watershed.” MTPR requested an interview with B.C. officials about whether this deal had broader implications for other transboundary mining disputes, but they did not respond by deadline.

Aaron Bolton

Others, like Archibald, are watching what happens in Montana closely.

“We’re facing a salmon emergency, and we need to do something now,” he said.

For decades, the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, which includes 15 Alaska tribes, has been calling for the IJC to step in to resolve disputes over a dozen operating or permitted mines along major salmon-producing rivers in the region.

The Montana deal gives Archibald’s group something to point at to make its case.

“We’ve got a crack in the door for Alaska. That door is cracked open, you put your shoulder against it and push with all your might,” Archibald said.

But whether the IJC stepping into the Montana-B.C. selenium issue is a watershed moment for groups like Archibald’s isn’t yet clear.

Back on the flight above Lake Koocanusa, Sexton says the impact of selenium pollution here won’t go away overnight, no matter what the IJC recommends.

“The challenge with the Elk Valley mines is that we’re dealing with a legacy contamination problem. We have been leaching contaminants for decades,” Sexton said.

The IJC will set up a study board to learn more about the current scope of the problem over the next two years. Sexton says that will bring a new level of transparency.

“A lot of the data isn’t publicly available and much of the data collection is run by Teck, the mining company,” Sexton said.

She says how the IJC acts on the data remains to be seen, but she hopes it will push back against expanding any mines in the Elk Valley.