Canada’s parliamentary environment watchdog is being urged to investigate whether years of alleged negligence by federal officials have allowed pollution from coal mines to wipe out species of fish and poison drinking water in B.C.’s Elk Valley.

The calls for the new federal investigation follow repeated pleas from U.S. government officials based on two decades of scientific evidence about how selenium and other pollutants have flowed into cross-border waterways from Teck Resources coal mines.

A team from the University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre compiled the evidence in a report sent to the federal environment commissioner, Jerry De Marco, who works in the office of the federal auditor general, Karen Hogan.

“We submit that no issue of sustainable development could be more significant than the government’s longstanding failure to use the Fisheries Act and other federal powers to address catastrophic coal mine pollution in the Elk Valley,” the report says.

“This regulatory failure has directly contributed to one of the most serious and permanent environmental disasters in Canadian history.” 

Law students Jesse Langelier, Russell Chiong and Ellen Campbell drafted the report under the supervision of the centre’s legal director Calvin Sandborn and sent it on behalf of conservation group, Wildsight.

It was not immediately clear how soon the commissioner would be able to review the report. Investigations in the commissioner’s office often take months of preparations before getting underway and years to complete.

There is a growing urgency to find out why the federal and provincial governments have not cracked down on pollution from the mines because several new coal mine proposals for the Elk Valley are in different stages of review by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office, Sandborn said.

The report also questioned whether Canada was violating its international obligations under the Boundary Waters Treaty, signed in 1909. 

“The governments of Montana, Idaho and the United States have long complained about Canada’s remarkable failure to control the pollution now poisoning American waters and fish downstream from the Elk Valley coal mines,” said the centre’s report. “Those governments are now desperately attempting more definitive action to prompt Canada to address its international obligations — and to stop polluting its neighbour.”

The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office told The Narwhal in an email that the process to assess three new coal mines will look at water quality, the effects on fish, “cumulative effects from existing and proposed projects” and mitigation of adverse effects.

But, if approved, the new mines could increase pollution from the mountains of waste rock that leach selenium, calcite and other pollutants, the report warned.

“Such ongoing expansion will likely lock in higher long-term pollution levels for generations to come,” says the University of Victoria report.

The centre’s report singled out officials from two federal departments, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, alleging that their officials failed to wield their powers under existing environmental laws and instead deferred to the B.C. government. This despite a blistering 2016 report from then provincial auditor general Carol Bellringer who noted that, after 20 years of tracking dramatic annual increases of selenium in the watershed around the mines, the province took no substantive action.

Bellringer’s report said provincial compliance and enforcement of mining rules were deficient and “inadequate to protect the province from significant environmental risks.” But, five years later, Elk Valley provincial mine pollution discharge permits continue to set levels that far exceed B.C.’s Water Quality Guidelines for aquatic species, wildlife and drinking water.

The province, together with the Ktunaxa Nation Council and other agencies, has come up with the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, which, the province says, “provides a long-term strategy to stabilize and reduce concentrations of mine constituents in the watershed.” Under the Environmental Management Act, Teck must meet B.C. selenium water quality guidelines in Lake Koocanusa, which straddles the border, according to a ministry statement.

But those measures are grossly inadequate, says the University of Victoria report, pointing to increasing selenium levels and Canada’s refusal to at least match selenium standards across the border in the United States.

Senators from the U.S. want the Elk Valley pollution problem referred to the International Joint Commission and say Canada appears to be violating the Boundary Waters Treaty. In a surprising twist, Canadian commissioners have also been accused by their U.S. counterparts of suppressing scientific information on the Elk Valley selenium discharges.

When asked about its environmental oversight of Teck, a spokesperson for the B.C. Environment Ministry said Teck has recently been subject to “strengthened investigations and compliance requirements” and, over several years, has been fined $720,000 for environmental violations.

More notably, in March, after the federal government finally took action over the persistent pollution, Teck was fined $60 million for violations that occurred in 2012. However, as part of the plea bargain, the Crown dropped approved charges for pollution that occurred from 2009-2011 and from 2013-2019.

“A question arises: were charges long withheld as part of some agreement with the company and the province to clean up the selenium problems?” the report asks.

“If so, just where is that effective cleanup?”

Teck told The Narwhal in a statement that  the company has made significant progress in implementing the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan and water treatment facilities now in operation are removing almost all selenium, with more plants planned.

“We expect to have capacity to treat up to 54 million litres of water per day later this year — nearly three times our 2020 treatment capacity,” said spokesperson Dale Steeves.

“We have spent more than $1 billion so far to implement the Elk Valley Water Quality plan. Between now and 2024 we plan to invest up to a further $655 million in work to protect the watershed,” he said.

However, the Environmental Law Centre report says the water treatment plants have not lived up to company promises, some of the proposed plants are based on unproven technology and there is no plan to treat the water in perpetuity.

“Worse, there continues to be an enormous shortfall — over $500 million in company security/bonding to protect taxpayers from liability,” it says.

The history of concerns about pollution from the coal mines stretches back to 1995 when studies first indicated that selenium leaching from waste surrounding the coal mines was harming fish in waterways such as the Upper Fording River.

Westslope cutthroat trout, a species of special concern under Canada’s Species At Risk Act, are now on the verge of extirpation. As the trout are a sentinel species, it is an indication that the entire Elk Valley watershed is in deep trouble, says the Environmental Law Centre report.

“The population is likely doomed, yet this outcome was long predicted,” it says 

Adult population counts of the fish fell from 1,573 in 2017 to 104 in 2019, according to a recent report released by Teck.

However, despite studies showing selenium causes deformities and reproductive problems in fish, Teck spokesman Steeves said preliminary findings of a team of independent experts, put together by the company, indicate selenium was not a primary contributor to the decline.

“Teck is working collaboratively with government and Ktunaxa Nation Council to develop a westslope cutthroat trout recovery plan,” he said.

The Ktunaxa Nation, in a community impact statement made during the recent Fisheries Act Teck prosecution, said the pollution is alienating Ktunaxa people from their culture.

“Knowing that the fish habitat is impacted by these polluted waters leads to concern for the safety of the fish as well as for Ktunaxa consuming them. The result is an alienation of our people from our lands, waters and cultural practices,” it says.

The pollution also affects drinking water and seven wells have been found to have selenium levels that exceed guidelines. Teck is providing bottled water to those who rely on the wells and the company paid for a new well for the District of Sparwood after selenium levels exceeded drinking water guidelines.

But many British Columbians remain unaware of the crisis in the rivers and lakes around the Elk Valley because, unlike an oil spill or melting glaciers, selenium is an invisible crisis, said Randal Macnair, Wildsight’s Elk Valley conservation coordinator.

“The water in the Elk Valley flows through and looks great, but the selenium levels keep marching up. Sparwood had to replace a well, people are on bottled water, but it’s out-of-sight out-of-mind and that’s why reports like this are so important,” Macnair said.

Sandborn agrees that most people are unaware that a Canadian company is poisoning fish and polluting rivers that run into the United States and are usually shocked to discover that the government is taking so little action.

One of the big questions is why the law is not being enforced, Sandborn said.

“There are powerful forces at play. There’s a lot of money and jobs at play and there is a lack of taking into account the values that are being destroyed. It’s very short-term thinking,” he said.

Decisions on whether to conduct audits or inquiries into whether government programs are effective are made by the Office of the Auditor General and one consideration is the significance of the issue, the office told The Narwhal in an email.

Reports from the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development go to a parliamentary committee and “it is through the committee hearings process that Parliament holds government to account,” it said.

Environment and Climate Change Canada did not respond to questions before deadline.

Updated at 10 p.m. PT on July 16, 2021, to remove an incorrect reference that the Environmental Law Centre report referred to pollution resulting in the elimination of insect populations and to clarify that the report was recommending that Canada should at least match U.S. selenium standards.

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Teck Coal was ordered to pay a record $60 million fine this year for polluting waterways in the Elk Valley, but despite the penalty, contaminants continue to leach from piles of waste rock at the company’s mines — and the clock is ticking on new federal regulations that observers say are long overdue.

“Leadership is desperately needed in this watershed from the Canadian federal government,” said Erin Sexton, a University of Montana biologist.

The Elk Valley may have “one of the worst selenium contamination issues, I would say, even globally,” she said. And yet, “over the last decade and a half, there’s been a notable lack of regulatory response in this watershed to the water quality issues.”

New regulations are on the way,  but there is concern they won’t be strong enough to address the legacy of pollution from more than a century of coal mining in the Elk Valley.

The coal mining operations fall within the territory of the Ktunaxa Nation, which in March called for there to be “an appropriate and achievable plan in place to ensure that Teck Coal Limited meets water quality limits and addresses impacts to wuʔu (the water) and ʔa·kxamis ̓qapi qapsin (All Living Things).”

With several new coal projects proposed in the region, including a Teck mine expansion, experts say swift and strong measures are needed to ensure the region’s pollution problems don’t get worse.

If the federal government’s draft regulations are any indication, Sexton said, the changes could be “a lot too little and a lot too late.”

Her comments come in the lead up to a bilateral Canada-U.S. meeting this week focused on cross-border water issues. Transboundary mining will be on the agenda in the gathering between Global Affairs Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Selenium pollution a persistent challenge in the Elk Valley

Selenium, which leaches from the mines’ waste rock piles, is toxic to aquatic life at elevated levels. Species of mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies — food for fish — have already been lost, Sexton said. In fish, selenium poisoning can cause deformities and reproductive failure. It’s a pressing concern for the westslope cutthroat trout, which is listed as a species of concern under the Species at Risk Act.

Teck has so far invested roughly $1 billion in water treatment facilities and other measures to address water pollution in the Elk Valley. Currently, selenium is removed from up to 27.5 million litres of water a day at two treatment facilities, spokesperson Chris Stannell said in a statement to The Narwhal. 

With additional treatment facilities being constructed, the company is aiming to be able to treat more than 54 million litres of water a day by the end of this year and expects to see “significant reductions in selenium and nitrate concentrations throughout the watershed as a result,” Stannell said.

Westslope cutthroat trout is listed as a species of concern under the Species at Risk Act. In fish, selenium poisoning can cause deformities and reproductive failure. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

But data from monitoring stations in both the Elk River and Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir that crosses the Canada-U.S. border, shows selenium concentrations have increased despite these efforts, according to Lars Sander-Green, a mining analyst with the Kootenay-based conservation organization Wildsight.

“More mining is more waste rock and more waste rock is more water pollution,” Sander-Green said. 

“Teck is planning and has built some small treatment plants but so far they’ve been increasing mining faster than they’ve been bringing treatment into place,” he said. 

At this point, Sander-Green said he estimates that Teck is able to remove about 10 per cent of the total selenium pollution that flows downstream of its mines. 

Teck did not answer questions about what percentage of its mining wastewater is treated to remove selenium.

Federal oversight of coal mining ‘desperately needed’ in Elk Valley

Teck’s coal mines are subject to the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the release of a “deleterious substance” in fish-bearing water. The company’s recent $60 million fine, for example, stemmed from an investigation that found “deposits of waste rock from the company’s operations had leached deleterious substances, selenium and calcite, into the upper Fording River and its tributaries,” according to an Environment and Climate Change Canada summary of the case.

However, there’s been a longstanding gap when it comes to how coal mining is governed under the Fisheries Act because there aren’t any regulations specific to the coal industry.

“There are regulations for paper mills, for example, or metal mines, but not for coal mining,” Dan Cheater, a lawyer with Ecojustice, said.

Regulations governing effluent from metal mines have been in place for more than four decades and updated twice in the intervening years. But it wasn’t until 2017 that Environment and Climate Change Canada began working on regulations for coal mining effluent — despite its responsibility to protect fish and fish habitat under the Fisheries Act and the federal government’s commitments under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to not pollute transboundary waterways. 

(Pollution from the Elk Valley coal mines has long been a source of contention between Canada and the U.S. as contaminants from Teck’s mines eventually flow into Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir that straddles the B.C.-Montana border.)

In a statement, Stannell said: “Teck supports the development of regulations that are informed by a science-based approach, protective of aquatic life, and considerate of available treatment technologies.”

Those with long-standing conservation concerns, including Sexton, welcome the prospect of new regulations.

“I am 100 per cent in support of federal oversight in this watershed, I think it’s desperately needed,” she said.

“Not only are we well beyond what’s considered protective of fish and aquatic life in this watershed, we’re actually looking at expanding those impacts with the Fording River mine expansion and the three new coal mines that are proposed in the Elk Valley.” 

As for Cheater, he said he’s “hopeful that with these regulations, we’ll start seeing some progress.”

University of Montana biologist Erin Sexton takes a water sample in the Koocanusa Reservoir as part of an independent water testing program. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

Draft coal mining effluent regulations have been watered down

But there is reason to be wary.

“One thing that we’ve seen as new materials are being released by the federal government is there is a watering down of what the regulations were originally set to do that I think is disappointing,” Cheater said. 

Initially, Cheater said, the proposal included the ability to adjust contaminant limits based on fish health and concentrations in fish tissue samples. That was subsequently changed to a “strict limit” that applied to new mines and expansions.

“Now we’re seeing an exception carved out for the Elk Valley specifically,” he said.

Sander-Green called it “a Teck-sized hole in the regulations — there’s a whole set of regulations, that’s just for Teck, that’s much, much weaker, allows a lot more pollution than it would for a mine in Alberta or Nova Scotia.”

An Environment and Climate Change technical briefing document from February 2020 shows the federal department proposed a “two-pronged approach” to the regulations: a general approach that applies to new and existing mines and an alternative approach that applies only to the existing coal mines in the Elk Valley.

The draft general regulations as proposed early last year would apply limits to the concentrations of selenium, nitrate and suspended solids in mine effluent from final discharge points, with slightly weaker standards for existing mines.

Selenium levels by the numbers

Regulations for selenium pollution vary widely in the U.S. and Canada. Teck has been given plenty of latitude by the B.C. government to exceed provincial standards, prompting observers to call for stringent new federal rules.

0.8

The parts per billion limit recently adopted by U.S. agencies for Lake Koocanusa, where average selenium levels are about one part per billion.

2

B.C.’s general water quality guidelines currently recommend selenium levels be kept within two parts per billion to protect aquatic life.

63

Teck’s provincial permit allows selenium levels in rivers and creeks downstream of the company’s mines to far exceed the provincial water quality guideline. For instance, one of its Fording River order stations has a limit of 63 parts per billion.

Provincial regulations not enough to protect fish from coal mine pollution

Teck’s coal mines are already regulated by a provincial permit, which sets limits on how much of a contaminant, such as selenium, the mines can release into the environment — but Sander-Green said the limits are too high and Teck has too often failed to meet them. 

For example, B.C. government inspection records for one of Teck’s Fording River order stations, where water quality is regularly monitored, show average selenium levels in March 2020 measured 65.7 parts per billion and averaged 67.9 parts per billion in December. That’s higher than the allowable permit threshold of 63 parts per billion.

The company is also required to ensure selenium concentrations at one of its Fording River compliance points, where mine effluent is monitored, do not exceed a monthly average of 90 parts per billion. But inspection records show average selenium concentrations were 112 parts per billion in October 2020, 102.5 parts per billion in November, and 124 parts per billion in December.

The company could face new administrative penalties from the province for failing to meet the requirements of its permit, but according to Stannell those exceedances were unusual occurrences. 

“In 2020, water quality at order stations met permit limits 99 per cent of the time and at compliance points 93 per cent of the time,” he said. “We expect to further improve on this performance as additional water treatment comes online this year.”

An aerial view of a Rocky Mountain coal mine in B.C.’s Elk Valley near the B.C.-Alberta border. Photo: Callum Gunn

Observers say draft federal regulations aren’t strong enough to address Elk Valley pollution woes

Under the draft federal regulations, Teck’s existing mines would be required to meet baseline pollution limits set two and three years after the regulations are enacted. The company would then be required to reduce concentrations of selenium in the environment relative to that baseline in subsequent years. 

For instance, based on the February 2020 draft, the company would have to reduce monthly average selenium concentrations at federal compliance points by 36 per cent from the baseline, or to 40 parts per billion, whichever is lower, 16 years after the regulations are enacted.

Existing mines subject to the general regulations, meanwhile, would be required to meet a monthly average selenium limit of 10 parts per billion for effluent that is collected and released at specific outflow locations. New mines would face a limit of 5 parts per billion.

Four companies are proposing new coal mines in the Kootenay Rockies. Conservationists fear increased pollution in the region if they are approved. Map: Carol Linnitt

Sander-Green worries that “the proposed regulations would create a perverse incentive for Teck to do less to control their pollution in the coming years.” 

“It’s actually in Teck’s interest to keep pollution levels as high as possible until three years after these regulations come into force, because their pollution limits for the rest of the life of the mine would be based on pollution levels in the years after the regulations come into force,” he explained in an email to The Narwhal.

While the February 2020 draft regulations would eventually set a minimum requirement that monthly selenium averages don’t exceed 40 parts per billion, Sexton noted that’s still 20 times higher than the selenium concentration that’s considered protective of aquatic life.

In a statement to The Narwhal, Samantha Bayard, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada said “the proposed regulatory rules for existing coal mines in B.C.’s Elk Valley take into account the unique circumstances in the region.”

Coal mining in the area has “resulted in vast mine waste rock piles that often overprint water bodies, which make it impractical for existing mines to collect all of the mine effluent and apply the same effluent quality standards that can be achieved by newer facilities,” she said.

But Sexton argued the existing Elk Valley mines “should be held to the highest standard because according to the science this is the watershed that’s most at risk.”

Experts are increasingly worried by the high levels of selenium found in rivers near B.C.’s scenic Elk Valley, which is a great risk to aquatic life. The province has yet to finalize specific selenium pollution limits. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

At this point, selenium levels in the Elk and Fording rivers are “orders of magnitude” higher than what is safe for fish and other aquatic life, she said.

The Narwhal asked Environment and Climate Change Canada when the regulations would be finalized. In a statement, Bayard said that “given the importance of these regulations, we are taking the time to get them right. This will include extensive consultations with industry, Indigenous groups, environmental non-governmental organizations, and provinces.”

The timeline is a concern for Sander-Green, who noted any new coal mines built in the next few years may only be subject to the weaker standards for existing mines. According to the February 2020 technical briefing document, the draft regulations define new mines as mines that start operating three years after the regulations are enacted.

Sander-Green said any further delay is unreasonable. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t have had these regulations in place years ago,” he said.

‘Short-term solutions to long-term problems’

Even with new regulations forthcoming, there are concerns on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border about the long-term implications of continued coal mining in the Elk Valley.

While Teck is making considerable investments in water treatment, Sander-Green is concerned it won’t be a viable solution over the course of the decades or centuries to come. 

“What these regulations should be doing is banning perpetual water treatment and prohibiting mines that will leave behind toxic pollution problems that will last beyond the lifetime of the mine,” he said.

It’s a concern Sexton — who called the water treatment facilities “short-term solutions to very, very long-term problems”— shares.

Robert Sisson, a U.S. commissioner on the International Joint Commission (IJC), recognizes the major investments Teck has made in water treatment facilities, including saturated rock fill technology. 

But “I’d like to make sure that we’re also discussing Plan B and Plan C, in the event [the saturated rock fill technology] does not work as intended or it’s just simply not enough to do the job that we need to protect the waters,” he told The Narwhal in an interview.

Sisson said a bi-national watershed body that brings all interested groups and experts together could be helpful for finding a solution to the long-term pollution challenges in the Elk Valley.

“The IJC would be a good option, but there are others out there,” he said.

Under the Boundary Waters Treaty, the International Joint Commission has the power to investigate and recommend solutions to transboundary water disputes referred to it by the U.S. and Canadian governments.

The commission has alerted both governments to the selenium issues in the Elk Valley watershed, but has so far not been asked to intervene in the situation.

In the meantime, selenium and other contaminants continue to leach from piles of waste rock at the mines. 

With new projects and mine expansions being proposed, Sexton said she wants to see a moratorium on any new or expanded mines in the Elk Valley until the existing pollution problems are addressed.

“We have clear evidence now that this watershed is in trouble,” she said. So, “the first thing you do is try to stop the bleeding.” 

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In the face of widespread public backlash, the Alberta government agreed to rethink its plan to open parts of the Rocky Mountains and foothills to open-pit coal mining — but it’s a different story just across the provincial border, where an already massive industry could get bigger. 

Coal is British Columbia’s most valuable mined commodity: the provincial government forecast production to be worth almost $4 billion in 2020. Eighty-three per cent of that production took place in the Kootenay Rockies, where Teck Resources operates four metallurgical coal mines.

Though Teck is a major employer and economic contributor in the region, its mines are also a persistent source of selenium pollution. Some conservationists fear the problem could worsen if any of the four proposed coal mines in the area are built.

Elevated levels of selenium can cause deformities and reproductive failure in fish. The adult population of a trout species downstream of Teck’s mines recently saw its numbers fall 93 per cent. The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. 

Farther north, in the foothills of the Rockies in the Peace region, Conuma Coal Resources operates the province’s other three metallurgical coal mines (metallurgical coal is used in the steelmaking process). Decades of industrial development in the area has taken a toll on wildlife and a proposed mine is prompting concerns about increased risk to endangered caribou.

Here’s what you need to know about the five proposed coal projects in B.C.’s Rockies.

Teck’s proposed mine involves the highest annual coal production  

Teck has put forward a proposal to mine metallurgical coal from Castle Mountain, just south of the company’s existing Fording River operations. If the project is approved, Teck expects all coal processed at Fording River — 10 million tonnes a year — would come from the Castle Mountain mine by 2030, extending the life of the Fording River operations by several decades, according to the initial project description.  

The project is in the early engagement stage of a coordinated provincial and federal assessment process and Teck is now working on a detailed project description.

Chris Stannell, Teck’s public relations manager, said in a statement to The Narwhal that the company’s Fording River operation employs about 1,400 people and the project would “provide for continuing socioeconomic benefits” for the region. 

But in public comments, numerous concerns have been raised about impacts on air quality, increased selenium and nitrate contamination of local waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on First Nations’ use of the land, the loss of biodiversity and more.

Four companies are proposing new coal mines in the Kootenay Rockies. Conservationists fear increased pollution in the region if they are approved. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Teck is building additional water treatment plants to reduce the amount of selenium pollution from its existing mines and Stannell said the company would develop a plan to mitigate water quality impacts from the extension project. But Lars Sander-Green, mining lead with the Kootenay-based conservation organization Wildsight, questioned the long-term feasibility of the company’s plan and said Teck should focus on addressing selenium pollution from its existing mines. 

Sander-Green also noted concerns about impacts on local bighorn sheep, adding that the mining project “would be basically taking down a mountain over the next four to five decades.” 

Bighorn sheep in the Elk Valley east of the Elk River “winter at high elevation on south- and west-facing windswept, sunbaked slopes,” Kim Poole, a wildlife biologist at Aurora Wildlife Research and the main author of the Kootenay region bighorn sheep management plan, told The Narwhal.

Teck Resources already operates four metallurgical coal mines in the Rockies using methods that have completely changed the landscape of the mountains, as seen here. Photo: Callum Gunn

There’s very little snow in these high elevation grassland areas, which means the sheep are able to forage in the winter, he said. But these winter ranges are limited.

Poole said Teck’s reclamation of mined areas over the past few decades has helped bolster the sheep population, but the company can’t reclaim high elevation ranges once the mountaintop has been removed

The long-term implications for the sheep aren’t clear, Poole said. 

It “may not have a great impact at the population level, but it probably will have some impact at the more local sub-population level,” he said. 

Michel Coal Project environmental assessment application expected soon 

North Coal Limited, a Canadian subsidiary of the Australian company North Coal Pty Ltd., is proposing the Michel Coal Project, a mine in the Crowsnest coalfield, about 15 kilometres southeast of Sparwood. If the project is approved, it would produce between 2.3 million and four million tonnes of raw coal over a 30-year mine life.

As with other existing and proposed coal mines in the Elk Valley, water pollution is a key concern for local conservationists. 

“The current cumulative water quality impacts of the existing Elk Valley coal mines clearly preclude any additional mines within the watershed,” Wildsight wrote in public comments in August 2019.

A river near B.C.’s scenic Elk Valley where Teck’s coal mines have led to a decades-long selenium pollution problem. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

Patty Vadnais, North Coal’s manager of social responsibility and external relations, said in a statement that the project “is designed to achieve the objectives of the Elk Valley water quality plan.” The company plans to “address selenium and other elements of concern at the source by using a unique combination of features that together will prevent contamination,” Vadnais said.

Alongside active water treatment facilities, North Coal says on its website that it would also employ passive water treatment options such as saturated rock fills — essentially using flooded pits filled with waste rock to remove selenium.

Teck has employed saturated rock fills as part of its water treatment plan and says it has seen success from its first facility. But Sander-Green said in an email to The Narwhal that Wildsight is “concerned that technology is new and unproven,” raising questions about who would manage and monitor the rock fills after a mine closes down.

In its 2019 comments, Wildsight also noted the importance of the Michel Creek watershed for wildlife: “Wide ranging carnivores like grizzly bears, wolverine and lynx rely on the health and function of the Michel Creek for connectivity.” 

The North Coal project is in the “pre-application” phase of the provincial review process. Vadnais said the company plans to submit its project application to the federal and provincial governments in the coming months. 

Bingay Main Coal Project stalled in 2018 

Vancouver-based Centermount Coal Ltd. has proposed the Bingay Main Coal Project about 21 kilometres north of Elkford. 

 If the project proceeds, it’s expected to operate for between 12 and 14 years and produce one million tonnes of coal per year.  

Elkford residents raised numerous concerns about the project, including its potential impacts on recreation, water and wildlife, The Free Press newspaper in Fernie reported in 2018.

In 2017, there were 250 public comments on issues including fish habitat, water quality, air quality, employment, community infrastructure, recreation and community wellbeing, with many expressing strong opposition to the project. 

According to a status update provided to The Narwhal by B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the project is in the pre-application phase of the provincial assessment process and hasn’t been active since 2018. However, last year, the company asked the provincial environmental assessment office to keep the project in the process, according to a recent coal industry overview produced by the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation. 

Crown Mountain Coal Project plans to submit assessment application this year

Another Australian company’s Canadian subsidiary is behind the Crown Mountain Coal Project, a proposed open-pit mine about 12 kilometres northeast of Sparwood. NWP Coal Canada Ltd., which is owned by Jameson Resources Limited, expects the project would produce about 3.7 million tonnes of coal per year over a 16-year mine life.

Early public comments, collected in 2016 through the provincial environmental assessment process, raised concerns about impacts on grizzly bear, moose and sheep habitat, backcountry recreation and water quality.  

According to the provincial government’s recent coal industry overview, NWP Coal continued work last year on its environmental assessment application and conducted baseline environmental surveys.

The company is now in the process of drafting its application for an environmental assessment certificate and plans to submit this year, according to the status update from the provincial environment ministry. The project is also subject to the federal impact assessment process.

Water pollution, cumulative impacts key concerns as new mines considered for Elk Valley

Selenium pollution remains a pressing concern for all new mines under consideration in the Kootenay Rockies.

“Fundamentally, every new mine proposal on both sides of the Rockies is promising they’ll solve the water pollution problem with some combination of saturated rock fill, waste rock dump construction techniques, water treatment facilities, wetlands, source control, geotechnical covers and so on,” Sander-Green said in an email.

“But Teck has spent many hundreds of millions trying to deal with their water pollution problem and they haven’t made much progress and have missed many targets in their water treatment plans. It seems unlikely that a new company is going to be able to solve all these problems from day one,” he said.

Sander-Green said there is also growing unease around other water contaminants, including nitrate, nickel and calcite. 

In some areas of the Elk Valley, “the stream bed is basically turning into concrete from the calcium coming out of these mines,” Sander-Green said in an interview with The Narwhal.

Selenium pollution in the Kootenay Rockies is a danger to westslope cutthroat trout, which rely on stream beds in the Elk Valley. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

That’s a problem for westslope cutthroat trout, which lay their eggs in gravel nests, he explained. When the stream bed solidifies, these fish can’t properly protect their eggs.

Sander-Green said it’s crucial to consider the cumulative impacts of mining in the Elk Valley.

“What’s going to happen in 100 years? How are we going to deal with these problems?” he said. 

All four proposed projects fall within the traditional territory of Ktunaxa Nation. In a statement to The Narwhal, Kathryn Teneese, Chair of Ktunaxa Nation Council, said: “The Ktunaxa Nation, as the proper Title and Rights holder in Qukin ʔamakʔis, is deeply involved with industry and other governments in the review and decision making regarding existing and proposed coal mines and the rehabilitation of the land and waters.”

Glencore’s Sukunka mine proposal remains ‘on pause’

Glencore Canada’s proposed Sukunka Coal Mine would be located about 55 kilometres south of Chetwynd in Treaty 8 territory in northeast B.C., in a critical habitat of an endangered caribou herd.

If the project is approved, Glencore expects it to have a mine life of more than 20 years and to initially produce 1.5 million to two million tonnes of coal a year, with production eventually growing to six million tonnes a year.

West Moberly First Nations and conservation groups have raised concerns about the mine’s potential impact on the Quintette caribou herd.

Tim Burkhart, the B.C. program manager with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, said 

“the region has seen a massive change to the land base due to industrial disturbance.” 

“That’s pushed a lot of wide-ranging species and iconic species like caribou to the brink of extinction, and in some cases, has extirpated local populations of caribou,” he said. 

The Sukunka mine would fall “smack dab” in the middle of the Quintette caribou herd’s habitat, a population that’s already impacted by existing coal mines in the region, Burkhart explained.

Alongside the threat to caribou, Burkhart said there’s a growing problem with selenium pollution in the Peace region and there are concerns about cumulative impacts from additional selenium contamination stemming from any potential new mines. 

In a statement, Matthew White, the project leader for Glencore’s Sukunka project, said the project “remains on pause in the B.C. environmental assessment process. In the meantime, the working group continues to meet and Glencore is working to address questions and concerns raised at that table.”

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In the largest penalty ever issued for Fisheries Act offences, Teck Coal Limited was fined $60 million by the Provincial Court of British Columbia Friday for polluting waterways in the Elk Valley, where the company operates metallurgical coal mines.

Teck Coal, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, pleaded guilty to two charges related to selenium and calcite pollution released from its Fording River and Greenhills mines over the course of 2012. Crown prosecutors have agreed not to pursue charges related to releases of the same contaminants between 2013 and 2019.

Associate Chief Judge Paul Dohm said he is “satisfied the penalties imposed are a significant deterrent to Teck Coal.”

In a statement, Ktunaxa Nation Council said “there have been significant impacts to wuʔu (the water) in Qukin ʔamaʔkis (Elk Valley) due to coal mining, and those impacts continue to grow today with Teck Coal Limited’s operations.”

“This case, the charges laid, and the fines assessed, are steps in acknowledging the harm that has been and continues to be done to ʔamak ȼ wuʔu (the land and water) by development impacts done without Ktunaxa consent,” the statement reads.

Teck CEO offers apology, commitment to address water pollution

In an open letter, Teck CEO Don Lindsay said, “We sincerely apologize and take responsibility for the impacts of these discharges. Everyone at Teck is committed to responsible mining that protects the environment.”

“You have my commitment that we will not waver in our focus on addressing this challenge and working to ensure that the environment is protected for today and for future generations,” he said.

Lars Sander-Green, mining lead with the Kootenay-based conservation organization Wildsight, raised concerns however that when compared to Teck’s revenue from coal — more than $4.5 billion in 2012 alone — the fine may not do much to discourage further pollution.

“Here we are in 2021 and the problem just keeps getting worse and worse and worse every year,” he said.

Sander-Green said he was also “disappointed” that Environment and Climate Change Canada is not going to pursue charges for pollution offences between 2013 and 2019.

“It sends exactly the wrong message, which is that you can negotiate with Environment Canada if you’re a mine that’s polluting to keep your fines down,” he said.

Water, fish samples revealed harmful levels of selenium 

Selenium and calcium are released into the local environment when mine waste rock is exposed to precipitation and oxygen, Crown counsel Alexander Clarkson said in court, adding that the scale of the waste rock piles along the Upper Fording River is “substantial,” with some piles reaching more than 100 metres high.

Exposure to elevated levels of selenium is toxic for fish and can result in deformities and reproductive failure. Calcite, meanwhile, essentially turns the stream bottom to concrete, solidifying the loose gravels that fish rely on to create protective nests for their eggs.

Clarkson said Teck Coal was aware years earlier that selenium and calcite could cause environmental harm, but over the course of 2012 “did not exercise due diligence to prevent the deposit of coal mine waste rock leachate into the Fording River.”

Nor did the company have a comprehensive plan in place to address contamination from mine waste rock at that time, he said.

Read more: For decades B.C. failed to address selenium pollution in the Elk Valley. Now no one knows how to stop it.

At the same time, Teck failed to maintain barriers to prevent westslope cutthroat trout in the Upper Fording River from accessing the waste rock settling ponds, Clarkson said.

In 2012 Environment and Climate Change Canada officers collected samples of westslope cutthroat trout muscle and eggs in the Upper Fording River watershed and detected selenium concentrations high enough to cause adverse effects, he said.

Westslope cutthroat trout are listed as a species of concern under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Selenium concentrations detected in water samples from the Upper Fording River downstream of Teck’s coal mines ranged from 9 part per billion to 90 part per billion, according to an Environment and Climate Change publication on the investigation. Selenium concentrations upstream of the operations meanwhile, were less than 1 part per billion.

“Calcite deposits were also observed in tributaries supporting the habitat of the Upper Fording River westslope cutthroat trout population,” Clarkson noted.

Since 2012 Teck has conducted fish surveys in the Upper Fording River. While Clarkson noted the westslope cutthroat population was either stable or increasing in surveys conducted between 2013 and 2017, the 2019 survey revealed a dramatic collapse of the adult population relative to 2017 numbers. The cause of the collapse is still being investigated.

Ktunaxa Nation rights have been affected by coal mining in traditional territory

Teck’s coal mines are located within the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Nation.

“Fish and fish habitat are critical to the maintenance of Ktunaxa rights, interests, and practices for ecological, cultural, subsistence, and commercial values, particularly in light of the historic loss of swaq̓mu (salmon) from the upper Columbia,” said Vickie Thomas, the operational director of Ktunaxa lands and resources sector, as part of the Ktunaxa community impact statement she read in court.

“The pollution of waterways in qukin ʔamakʔis and Ȼam̓ na ʔamakʔis affects the Ktunaxa in many ways,” she said.

 “Ktunaxa perceptions of contamination in fish is already impairing Ktunaxa practice of rights on the Elk and Fording Rivers, including avoidance of these areas for fishing,” she said. 

“The result is an alienation of our people from our lands, waters and cultural practices.”

“From a Ktunaxa perspective, considering the overall disturbance of ʔamak (lands) within qukin ʔamakʔis, the threshold of adverse effects on the exercise of Ktunaxa rights has likely already been surpassed in the region,” Thomas said.

An illustration created by Ktunaxa artists, Darcy Luke and Marisa Phillips, was submitted as part of the Ktunaxa Nation’s impact statement regarding pollution of water in the Elk Valley from Teck’s coal mines. Illustration: Ktunaxa Nation

Wildsight calls for ‘pause’ on any expansion of Elk Valley coal mining

In his open letter, Teck CEO Lindsay said the company has invested about $1 billion to implement the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, which was developed in 2013 and approved in 2014, to reduce water pollution from the mines. As part of that plan, Teck has constructed water treatment facilities and implemented water quality monitoring and research and development initiatives. 

“While there has been significant progress since 2012, much more remains to be done. Additional water treatment facilities are under construction now with more in the planning stages,” Lindsay said, adding the company plans to invest up to $655 million in the next four years. 

“We are committed to meeting this challenge,” he said.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a directive to Teck in October 2020 requiring the company to take certain steps, including water treatment facilities, to improve water quality in the Upper Fording River Valley. 

Wildsight however, has repeatedly raised concerns that Teck’s costly water treatment facilities are not a sustainable long-term solution.

With four more mines proposed in the area, Sander-Green said he’d like to see a “pause” on any potential coal mining expansion in the Elk Valley.

“We’re very concerned that we’re going to see a lot more mining in the valley with water treatment that’s going to mask that pollution problem for as long as the coal lasts and then in the long-term we’re going to see even more pollution than we see today,” he said.

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A Kootenay conservation organization is urging the B.C. government to “stop stalling” and match a new, more stringent U.S. standard for selenium pollution in a cross-border lake downstream of Elk Valley coal mines.

B.C. and Montana spent years working to develop a new selenium limit for the watershed. Montana moved to implement the new standard last year and recently secured approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as is required under the Clean Water Act.

North of the border, however, water quality objectives for selenium pollution remain unchanged.

“It’s time for B.C. to stop stalling on adopting a shared pollution limit,” said Lars Sander-Green, mining lead with the conservation organization Wildsight.

“The science is solid, it’s settled. Montana’s moved ahead, it’s time for B.C. to do the same,” he said.

Read more: For decades B.C. failed to address selenium pollution in the Elk Valley. Now no one knows how to stop it.

There are longstanding concerns in the Elk Valley about selenium pollution leaching from piles of waste rock at coal mines operated by Teck Resources.

While aquatic life, like people and other animals, needs some amount of selenium to survive, too much can have detrimental effects. When fish are exposed to elevated selenium levels, for instance, it can result in lower production of viable eggs, deformities, reduced growth, and even death, Myla Kelly, water quality standards manager with Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality explained to The Narwhal last fall.

Ninety-five per cent of the selenium entering Lake Koocanusa comes from the Elk River, which has been contaminated by current and historic coal mining in the Elk Valley, according to a September 2020 presentation by the Montana environment department.

Experts have long warned about negative impacts to fish from selenium in Elk Valley waterways where selenium levels as high as 150 parts per billion have been detected.

Last spring, Teck reported a dramatic decline in adult westslope cutthroat trout in Elk Valley waterways closest to its mines. Chris Stannell, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement that the cause of the decline is still being investigated, but preliminary findings have been shared with government agencies and the Ktunaxa National Council and are under review. Stannell said those early findings suggest a combination of factors may have led to the decline but that water quality, including selenium, wasn’t a primary contributor.

Downstream, in Lake Koocanusa, average selenium levels are currently 1 part per billion, above Montana’s new standard of 0.8 parts per billion, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality presentation.

Meanwhile, B.C.’s general water quality guidelines, which apply to the Canadian side of Lake Koocanusa, recommend selenium levels be limited to 2 parts per billion — more than double Montana’s new standard.

Teck’s metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

“We know that the current elevated level of selenium and other contaminants in the Koocanusa reservoir is a concern, and that is why we are working with everyone involved, including the Ktunaxa Nation Council to ensure the best available science is employed so that fish and aquatic health is protected,” David Karn, a spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said a statement.

Once a water quality objective is approved, it would be considered in permitting decisions and as part of any required enforcement actions, the statement explained. However, meeting that objective would not be a legal requirement in B.C.

Coal mining operations are ongoing at four active Teck Resources operations in B.C.’s Elk Valley. Photo: Callum Gunn

With new coal mines proposed for the Elk Valley, Sander-Green wants to see B.C. adopt a more stringent objective for selenium to ensure that the new limit is considered as part of the environmental assessment processes.

Teck’s proposed Castle Mountain coal mine, now called the Fording River Extension Project, is also facing a federal assessment, which Sander-Green said will have to consider the transboundary concerns about selenium.

In a statement, Stannell said Teck “is committed to protecting water quality on both sides of the border, including Lake Koocanusa and we have made significant progress to date implementing the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan.”

The company has invested in treatment facilities to remove selenium and expects to increase water treatment capacity to 47.5 million litres of water per day later this year, the statement said. By 2031, the company is planning to be able to treat 120 million litres of water per day.

Sander-Green — who noted it’s not clear how much water is currently treated relative to the amount of pollution flowing from mine waste rock — is concerned that water treatment facilities are not a sustainable long-term solution to a problem that could persist long after the mines have shut down. 

He wants to see the issue referred to the International Joint Commission, a Canada-U.S. body guided by the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty that can investigate and makes recommendations to resolve transboundary water disputes.

Read more: The watershed watchers: in conversation with the International Joint Commission

“We know that no matter what the limit is, no matter what happens with future mines, you’ve got a long-term water problem across the border,” Sander-Green said.

“This is the kind of thing that one might think would go to the International Joint Commission,” said Richard Paisley, a lawyer and director of the Global Transboundary International Waters Governance Initiative at the University of British Columbia. And, while the commission cannot enforce orders, Paisley said it has significant moral and political authority.

The challenge is that “as a matter of practice, the International Joint Commission only accepts matters which are jointly referred by both countries,” he said.

“In this case, for example, the U.S. would have at first blush a legitimate concern,” he said. 

Before agreeing to a joint referral, the Canadian government would likely consult the B.C. government, which may be reluctant to send the matter to the commission, Paisley said.

“And, Canada has generally given great deference to the provinces.”

Sarah Lobrichon, a public affairs advisor for the joint commission, said in a statement that the commission has discussed the issue with both the U.S. and Canadian governments and “stands at the ready to assist the Governments of the United States and of Canada should a reference be provided.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said: “The Government of Canada takes the environmental impacts of mining seriously and we are working hard with our provincial and transboundary partners to ensure that appropriate actions are taken to protect the environment.”

At the same time, Environment and Climate Change Canada is working to develop new regulations under the Fisheries Act for coal mining effluent in an effort to reduce the risk of contaminants such as selenium, spokesperson Samantha Bayard said in a statement.

Sander-Green said a decision on whether to refer the issue to the joint commission “really comes down to the pull that B.C. has in Ottawa versus the pressure from the American side or the desire to clean up this issue in the long-term.”

“It’s pretty clear that B.C. doesn’t want to see this go to the [International Joint Commission] because it’s going to look bad for B.C.”

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A small creek that meanders through the hills above Kamloops is increasingly polluted with mine effluent running from 50-million tonnes of waste rock around the old Ajax mine, a new report has found.

Pollution from substances such as arsenic, selenium and molybdenum mean the water in Peterson Creek exceeds B.C.’s Water Quality Guidelines, but monitoring of the contamination is “woefully inadequate and ambiguous” according to the report by hydrogeologist Kevin Morin of the Minesite Drainage Assessment Group.

The report concludes outdated and deficient permit requirements lead to wrong interpretations and conclusions and “do not explain the dramatic increasing contamination of Peterson Creek by minesite-derived elements.”

Kamloops Area Preservation Society, which commissioned the report, has sent a lawyer’s letter to the province asking that measurements of creek flows and chemistry be changed from twice a year to monthly and saying surrounding monitor wells should be included in the testing. There will be no ministry response until after the election.

Peterson Creek and the nearby aquifer serve as a water source for the Knutsford Knoll development, Kamloops RV Campground and several homes. The water is also used by ranchers and wildlife and Peterson Creek Park is a popular recreation site.

The permit for measuring pollution is held by KGHM Ajax Mining Inc., which attempted to reopen and expand the mine, but the plan was denied an environmental certificate by the provincial government in 2017 and rejected by the federal government in 2018 after reviews concluded the $1.3-billion project would cause significant adverse environmental effects and would affect Indigenous land usage.

The plan for a massive open pit mine, close to homes, with a dam sitting above the city, was fiercely opposed by many Kamloops residents and was rejected by the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation and the municipality.

Coincidentally, the Peterson Creek pollution report was released as KGHM partner, Abacus Mining and Exploration Corp., announced that KGHM has hired a new Ajax superintendent for the area. According to a statement from Abacus, the company will be consulting with First Nations and the community in an effort to revive the project.

The pollution in Peterson Creek is running from waste created both historically and between 1989 and 1997 when a subsidiary of Teck Resources mined copper, gold and silver.

Morin found that contaminated water from the mine waste is entering the aquifer and continuing into Peterson Creek, which runs into the Thompson River, and monthly measurements, monitoring and analysis is needed. The water should be compared with water quality guidelines for drinking, irrigation, wildlife and aquatic life, he recommended.

Concentrations of contamination in the creek above the mine site are low, but, downstream from the mine, concentrations rise dramatically, meaning the water should not be drunk or used for irrigation and could harm aquatic and wildlife.

Kamloops Area Preservation Society spokesperson Paula Pick said everyone in the area should be concerned about the increasing pollution “but especially people directly using water from the creek and its aquifer.”

Jill Calder of Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment Society echoed the concerns, especially as the nearest home is only about 1,200 metres from the mine site.

Plans are also underway to build a new subdivision, with up to 1,600 new homes, close to the site.

“I’m concerned that these particular substances — all the long list of by-products from the tailings ponds — are known to cause health hazard risks,” Calder told The Narwhal.

The toxic remnants of mining operations and unsafe tailings ponds are a growing concern, not only in Kamloops, but around the world, Calder said.

“There’s a lot of concern the mines responsible for them do not have the financial solvency to do an exit plan in the way they proposed to decommission the mine,” she said.

Don Barz, member of the Kamloops Area Preservation Society, who lives about four kilometres from the mine site, is not surprised that Morin found mine waste polluting Peterson Creek.

“Perhaps this is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

“We want to see more monitoring because the information we do have is data that the mining company has had to (produce) and based on what their sampling results show there are high levels of toxic elements … We need to have a better scientific understanding of what is going on up there so we can better assess the impacts on aquatic life,” he told The Narwhal.

Peterson Creek is small, but it is critical for wildlife as, during the summer when water sources dry up, there are no other creeks in the area, Barz said.

“For wildlife this is it, so if it gets polluted, it has a big localized impact and, because it is such a small creek there is very little dilution,” he said.

Carman-Anne Schulz of the Sagebrush Neighbourhood Association said 10 years work has gone into removing garbage and invasive weeds from Peterson Creek Park.

“It is shocking to learn that the creek is being polluted by the Ajax mine,” she said.

Morin said in an interview that problems with monitoring stretch back to the 1970s when the effect of mine waste on the aquifer was not considered even though most pollution from groundwater travels underground rather than on the surface water.

“It’s only about four years ago that British Columbia finally came up with groundwater protection regulations. That was the first time groundwater was recognized as a resource like trees, air and surface water,” Morin said.

“The old attitude was out-of-sight, out-of-mind. You can contaminate it, but just let it go into the ground and that was what the original permit was saying in 1976,” he said.

That permit allowed 25 cubic metres a day to go into the ground, without any checks on the quantity or quality, Morin said.

The permit has been amended several times, but now needs to be scrapped and rewritten, he said.

“It’s like sewing an old, favourite piece of clothing. After a while, the patches are going to break down and it just doesn’t work any more,” he said.

Morin predicts that, once the election is over, the ministry is likely to prioritize rewriting the permit.

“I think that, now they have hydrogeologists and a groundwater protection regulation, the ministry will look at this and say ‘wow, this permit has to be rewritten from scratch because it really doesn’t do what it has to do,’ ” he said.

The first step is to gather information and figure out the severity of the contamination and where it is going, Morin said, who expects that further action will then be necessary.

“One example would be to put in pump wells between the old mine site and the creek and then pump the water so you are pumping the contaminated water out of the ground, out of the aquifer and keep it from getting into the creek and they would then have to send it to a treatment plant,” Morin said.

“But, before the Environment Ministry could say ‘you have to do something’ they have to have the evidence and the permit does not give them the evidence that they need,” he said.

The Peterson Creek contamination illustrates the need for B.C. to beef up its mining regulations, said Ugo Lapointe of Mining Watch Canada.

“This is clearly another example of why B.C. should strengthen its mining laws and oversight to ensure mine waste dumps do not put communities and watersheds at risk and make sure mining companies pay to clean up their mess. Right now, they don’t,” Lapointe said.

The NDP government has moved to tighten up the Mines Act, but there is still a shortfall of at least $1.2 billion between what it will cost to clean up mine sites and security held by the province.

Nikki Skuce, director of Northern Confluence, said the B.C. Mining Law Reform Network is advocating for full bonding for mine reclamation within the first three years of operation.

“However, the Ajax mine never got operating, so nothing’s been collected for that site,” Skuce said.

B.C. still does not have legislation to ensure the polluter pays although, technically, the Chief Inspector of Mines can use the reclamation bond to have a high risk issue dealt with immediately, Skuce said.

“But, again, that probably doesn’t apply to an old site and a proposed mine where no bond or financial assurances exist,” she said.

In its election platform released this week, the B.C. NDP stated it would make “polluters pay for cleanup of abandoned projects.”

The province was aware in November 2019, from data filed by the company, that KGHM was out of compliance with the permit, but it is not known whether any action was taken.

“Too often, permit conditions are amended so that companies are then in compliance … versus forcing the company into compliance with the original conditions,” Skuce said.

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As the state of Montana moves to set more stringent selenium limits for a cross-border body of water, environmental groups are concerned British Columbia is stalling similar efforts aimed at reducing pollution from coal mines in the province’s southeast.

B.C. and Montana have been working to develop a new limit for selenium pollution in the Lake Koocanusa watershed since 2015. 

Ninety-five per cent of the selenium entering Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir that spans the B.C.-Montana border, comes from the Elk River, according to a September 2020 presentation from Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality.

The element leaches into the waterways from piles of waste rock at coal mines operated by Teck Resources in the Elk Valley, and with a number of proposed mines undergoing environmental assessments there are concerns the problem could get worse.

“If we have a [selenium] limit going into those assessments then it’s going to be really clear to everyone and we can make decisions based on those limits,” said Lars Sander-Green, mining lead with Wildsight, a conservation group based in the Kootenays. 

“We really want to … get this limit adopted soon so that we can have some certainty,” he said.

Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality announced on Sept. 24 that it had begun the process to establish a proposed site-specific selenium limit for the water column in Lake Koocanusa of 0.8 parts per billion. 

“The goal for both Montana and British Columbia is to adopt aligned standards that protect aquatic life,” the department’s press release noted.

B.C.’s existing water quality guidelines recommend selenium levels be kept to two parts per billion to protect aquatic life. In waters tested throughout the Elk Valley, however, selenium levels have been found to exceed 150 parts per billion near mining activities. In the last year, Teck reported major population declines of westslope cutthroat trout in three waterways downstream of the company’s Elk Valley coal mines. 

Average selenium levels in Lake Koocanusa, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border about 100 kilometres south of the Elk Valley mines, are currently about one part per billion, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s presentation.

Teck’s metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

In late September, B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy released a statement saying the province had not yet selected its own proposed water-quality objective for selenium in Lake Koocanusa.

“B.C. is committed to a science-based process informed by the best available data,” the statement said.

“A selenium-level target will only be established once B.C. is fully confident that the process has met this high standard and after seeking consensus with the Ktunaxa Nation Council on a recommended standard for selenium for this transboundary waterbody,” it said.

The statement was “disappointing,” Sander-Green said.

“There’s no reason to delay, the province can go ahead and get this limit set and then we can move on to figuring out how Teck is actually going to reach this limit,” he said.

Teck’s public relations manager Chris Stannell noted in a statement to The Narwhal that the company has two water treatment facilities currently treating 17.5 million litres of water per day and plans to be able to treat 47.5 million litres per day in 2021.

“We have made significant progress implementing the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, a long-term approach to maintaining the health of the watershed,” he said. The water quality plan allows Teck to continue operating as long as the company is working toward stabilizing selenium pollution levels by 2023 with efforts to reduce levels after 2030.

Stannell did not directly respond to a question from The Narwhal asking if the company has concerns about being able to meet a possible selenium limit of 0.8 parts per billion in Lake Koocanusa.

While people, animals and aquatic life all need a little bit of selenium, “there’s a fine line of too little selenium and too much selenium,” said Myla Kelly, water quality standards manager with Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality.

When fish are exposed to too much selenium it can result in lower production of viable eggs, reduced growth, deformities and mortality, Kelly explained.

Too much selenium can also pose a risk to humans. A report released last month by the Health Professionals Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission, which focuses on transboundary water issues, notes people can experience health problems when they regularly consume more than the maximum recommended limit of 400 parts per billion per day.

“Selenosis is the condition resulting from chronic selenium intoxication; symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, muscle aches and hair and nail damage or loss,” the report says.

Selenium was the first priority for the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group when it came together in 2015 and a technical subcommittee focused on selenium was formed soon after. 

The subcommittee’s work was guided by the foremost selenium experts in both the U.S. and Canada, Kelly said.

The goal was “to establish this scientifically defensible, accurate standard for selenium, a standard that we had confidence was going to protect our aquatic life,” she said.

Kelly said Montana and B.C. agreed to a 2020 timeline to bring in new standards, and given Montana’s rulemaking process that meant her department had to bring forward proposed standards this fall.

“It’s our understanding that they’re working through their process as well,” she said of the B.C. government.

In a statement, Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation Council, said “as a government, the Ktunaxa Nation Council respects that each government at the table has their own respective timelines and processes for engagement and decision making, and we are confident there is still an opportunity to achieve the common goal for a single objective for the Koocanusa Reservoir, which will reflect the efforts that have been made on both sides of the 49th parallel in the past five years.”

In the meantime, new and expanded coal mines are being planned for the region, including Teck’s Castle Mountain project, which the company bills as an expansion of its Fording River mine — the largest coal mine in the province. The mining project would increase the area of mining operations by more than 2,000 hectares.

According to Teck, steelmaking coal from Castle Mountain would be processed at its Fording River operations for several decades. 

In August, Ottawa announced that the Castle Mountain project would be subject to a federal review in addition to a provincial one after several environmental organizations, Indigenous groups and U.S. government agencies called for a more comprehensive assessment.

Numerous groups that called for the federal review raised concerns about increased selenium pollution from the mining project.

Now environmental groups are pushing for B.C. to establish the more stringent 0.8 parts per billion selenium limit before Castle or other proposed coal mining projects proceed further through the review process.

“It’s time for B.C. and Montana to both make this limit law before the pollution situation in Koocanusa gets any worse,” said Dave Hadden, the executive director of Headwaters Montana, in a joint statement with Wildsight.

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The Canadian government will undertake an environmental review of Teck Resources’ Castle Mountain coal mine, a decision that comes after several environmental organizations, Indigenous groups and U.S. government agencies called for federal involvement in the project.

Wednesday’s announcement of a federal assessment follows the release of new U.S. Geological Survey research, which local  environmental organization Wildsight says suggests British Columbia may need more stringent guidelines for selenium pollution to safely protect fish in a lake that spans the border with Montana.

As Teck plans to expand its coal mining operations in the Kootenays, the new U.S. report was seen by critics as further reason for Ottawa to undertake a federal impact assessment of the company’s Castle Mountain project.

For years, environmental groups have been ringing alarm bells over selenium pollution from Teck coal mines and, in particular, the risks to aquatic life. High concentrations of the element have been found to cause deformities and reproductive failure in fish.

Environment and Climate Change Canada Minister Jonathan Wilkinson considered “the potential for the proposed project to cause adverse effects within areas of federal jurisdiction, as well as cumulative effects in the Elk Valley and across provincial and national borders, in particular to fish, fish habitat, species at risk and Indigenous peoples,” Moira Kelly, a spokesperson for the minister, said in a statement.

“We thank Minister Wilkinson for making the right decision to order a federal assessment for the Castle coal mine,” said Lars Sander-Green, a science and communications analyst focused on mining at Wildsight, in a statement.

“Castle would take down an entire mountain, could send dangerous water pollution hundreds of kilometres downstream and cut off travel routes for bears and other wildlife,” he said. 

“With Teck’s five existing mines in the Elk Valley and decades of mining already permitted, we desperately need a real assessment of the overall impacts from so much mountain-top removal coal mining in one valley.”

For decades B.C. failed to address selenium pollution in the Elk Valley. Now no one knows how to stop it.

While Castle Mountain is already undergoing a provincial review, Sander-Green said last week he had “very little confidence” the B.C. process would result in anything other than approval of the project.

Taseko’s Prosperity mine in Tsilhqot’in territory turned into a 12-year saga after the mine was approved by the provincial government, despite being rejected twice by the federal government. Earlier this spring the Supreme Court denied the company leave to appeal the federal government’s rejection of the project.

Teck spokesperson Chad Pederson called the federal decision “unfortunate,” noting in a statement that the project was already going through a “rigorous provincial environmental review process.”

“We are hopeful that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada will focus on a timely assessment that is fair and efficient,” he said.

B.C. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman also raised the issue of timelines in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Environmental Assessment Office has been engaging fully with the federal government and will coordinate its involvement in B.C.’s new [assessment] process for both timeliness and effectiveness,” Heyman said. “I appreciate that they understand and have committed to working within provincial timelines while they review matters of federal jurisdiction, such as trans-border issues.”

Kelly said the federal government “believes firmly in the principle of ‘one project, one review.’ To that end, the Impact Assessment Agency will cooperate closely with the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office to ensure a timely and predictable process.”

The Castle Mountain project is billed as an expansion of Teck Resources’ Fording River mine and as such was not automatically subject to a federal review. 

But in his decision, Wilkinson stated that some concerns about the project — including “effects to transboundary environments, fish and fish habitat, and Indigenous peoples” — fall under federal jurisdiction or may not be fully addressed by the provincial environmental assessment or through project permitting.

In its analysis report, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada said the Castle Mountain project “would be the largest coal mine in B.C. and one of the largest in Canada” and “has a high likelihood to cause direct and cumulative effects to areas of federal jurisdiction.”

According to Teck Resources’ project description, steelmaking coal from Castle Mountain, which is still in the design phase, would be processed at its Fording River operations for several decades. 

Concerns over selenium pollution from Teck’s mines

The recently published research from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests B.C. may need tougher guidelines, Sander-Green said.

The goal of the new report, which was posted online earlier this month, was to model the potential for selenium exposure and bioaccumulation in the Lake Koocanusa ecosystem to inform the development of selenium guidelines specific to the cross-border reservoir.

Sander-Green said the modelling work shows “that in order to keep fish in the reservoir safe, we need a much lower selenium pollution limit than the one B.C. has and much lower than the numbers that we’ve already seen.”

Teck’s five metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

Selenium levels measured in the Elk River 3.5 kilometres upstream from where it flows into Lake Koocanusa have exceeded B.C. guidelines of 2 parts per billion (ppb) since 1993, according to the U.S. report.

Experts from the B.C. and Montana governments as well as technical representatives from First Nations, U.S. tribes, industry and environmental organizations, which are all part of a cross-border working group focused on monitoring and research in the Lake Koocanusa watershed, are now reviewing the modelling information in the new U.S. Geological Survey report, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said in a statement.

“For the past few years the working group has been focused on reviewing selenium guidelines for Koocanusa Reservoir, which led to the development of the USGS modelling report and supporting materials,” the statement said.

“The modelling and report will be used to inform a selenium value for the Lake Koocanusa water quality objective. A public comment period on a draft selenium water quality objective for Lake Koocanusa will proceed in the fall.”

EPA finds selenium from B.C. mines contaminating fish in Montana

Meanwhile, Teck Resources says it is making “significant progress towards achieving the objectives of the Elk Valley water quality plan.” Spokesperson Chris Stannell said the initiative takes into account Teck’s development plans over the next 20 years, including the Castle Mountain project.

He noted Teck’s first water treatment facility at its Line Creek operations is treating up to 7.5 million litres of water today and the company is seeing lower selenium concentrations downstream. Another facility is treating upto 10 million litres of water affected by the mine at the company’s Elkview operations and the company is working to double its treatment capacity. He also said Teck is building two more water treatment facilities at its Fording River operations.

“In 2021, we expect to have capacity to treat up to 47.5 million litres per day, and we expect significant reductions of selenium and nitrate in the watershed as a result,” he said.

But Sander-Green said selenium pollution will continue to flow from mine waste rock for centuries to come. Teck’s “hideously expensive” water treatment plants are not a long-term solution, he added.

First Nations, U.S. tribes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Montana and a number of environmental groups had all called on Wilkinson to designate the project for a federal assessment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency noted in a letter to the president of the Impact Assessment Agency that “the project has the potential to cause adverse effects, including impacts to the environment both inside and outside Canada.”

“Direct and cumulative impacts from coal mining in the Elk Valley have resulted in documented impacts to Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River water quality, fish, and fish habitat in the U.S.” the letter says. 

The agency also expressed concern that new projects would increase pollution in the lake and river.

Canada suppressing data on coal mine pollution, say U.S. officials

In a May letter to Wilkinson, meanwhile, the Tribal Councils of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho wrote that a federal review of the project is needed to ensure consideration of “on-going and future mining contamination to water quality, fish, wildlife, and traditional cultural uses by our Nations.”

The letter also raised concerns about a “lack of demonstrated, successful technology to mitigate mining contamination and reduce risks to water quality and aquatic life.”

“For many years, the province of B.C., state of Montana and Teck mining company have separately and at times collectively promised to fix existing problems and for as many years have failed to yield improvements to water quality and stop degradation of water and the fish, wildlife, and human uses dependent on Teck’s and B.C.’s effluent into the U.S.,” the letter said.

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The owner of the proposed KSM mine in northwest B.C., situated atop one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Canada, has asked the province for an emergency two-year extension on its environmental assessment certificate, citing delays caused by COVID-19.

The mine’s owner, Toronto-based Seabridge Gold, originally received approval for the project in 2014, under an environmental assessment certificate that stated the project must be “substantially started” within five years.

In 2018, the company received a five-year extension to its environmental assessment certificate. If Seabridge’s request for an emergency extension is granted, the mine will end up having 12 years to achieve a substantial start on the mine from the time it was initially approved.

Seabridge Gold’s senior vice president of environmental affairs, Brent Murphy, told The Narwhal it needs more time to find an experienced mining company as a business partner.

“Seabridge Gold has had interest from several companies to partner on the KSM project, however, the metals prices over the past few years have not been favourable for such an investment,” Murphy said in a written statement.

Seabridge Gold has estimated the project will cost more than $6 billion to build. It predicts the mine will generate over $30 billion GDP within the province and $20 billion in the rest of Canada over its 52-year lifespan.

The KSM mine site is located 65 kilometres north of Stewart, B.C., and 30 kilometres northeast of the B.C.-Alaska border.

If built, the gold, copper, silver and molybdenum mine will entail three open pits and two underground mines. The mining tenure covers 60,000 hectares, an area the size of 148 Stanley Parks. Once built, the mine could produce up to 130,000 tonnes of ore per day.

The mine’s proposed tailings facility is designed to store 2.3 billion tonnes of tailings. Its tallest dam will be 239 metres high, which is 18 metres taller than the Hoover Dam. The project initially required mining under an active glacier, but that glacier has now retreated.

The Mount Polley mine had a total tailings storage volume of 44 million cubic metres. B.C.’s transboundary mines require much higher volumes of waste storage. The tailings facility at Red Chris can store up to 305 million cubic metres of mine waste. Shaft Creek has a storage volume of 588 million cubic metres and KSM a staggering 1,213 million cubic metres. Illustration: The Narwhal

B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy told The Narwhal it is considering Seabridge Gold’s request. A spokesperson said the environmental assessment office will “initiate a review process with technical advisors (provincial, federal and local government agencies) and Indigenous nations to review the request.”

After that review, the office will submit its review to its chief executive assessment officer for a decision.

Delay must be ‘in the public interest’

The Environmental Assessment Act typically only allows certificate deadlines to be extended once, but companies are able to apply for an emergency provision under the Environmental Assessment Act for another extension.

Seabridge Gold made its request in March. In May, the acting chief executive assessment officer for B.C.’s environmental assessment office replied explaining the challenges the project faces must be “directly related to the emergency” and the delay must be “in the public interest.” He asked Seabridge to explain how the project’s inability to meet its 2024 deadline were directly related to delays to the 2020 field season and “why lost time cannot be made up in the coming four years.”

A helicopter traverses Salmon Glacier, the fifth largest glacier in North America, near the proposed location of the KSM mine. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

In a response dated July 3, 2020, Seabridge Gold’s president and chief operating officer, Jay Layman, wrote “not having a JV [joint-venture] partner this year impacts our ability to initiate and ultimately complete the project feasibility study.”

In order to complete the feasibility study and begin construction, Layman said Seabridge needed a partner that could provide an additional investment between $600 million and $750 million. Seabridge Gold focuses on acquiring deposits and doing exploration, then selling them or creating a joint venture to get mines built, not building mines on its own.

He said the company had been expecting a proposal from prospective partners in March that was called off because of COVID-19.

Layman went on to say COVID-19 has disrupted markets and depressed the copper market, and that their financial advisors expected markets not to stabilize until 18 to 24 months after the end of the pandemic. He also said field work and permitting have slowed down, and delayed federal regulatory approvals to impact fish habitat.

He said Seabridge has met 26 of the 41 conditions in its environmental assessment certificate to date.

Science fiction or resource extraction? The strange tale of one of the largest mines ever proposed in B.C.

KSM’s environmental analysis ‘dated,’ expert says

David Chambers, founder and president of the Centre for Science in Public Participation, has 40 years of experience in mineral exploration and development. He said the KSM mine is proposed in a very difficult area with unpredictable weather and lots of water that needs to be diverted.

With a five-year extension already granted for the mine, Chambers said “its environmental analysis is quite dated.” In addition, since receiving its certificate, Seabridge Gold did more exploration and found more minerals than initially proposed.

“I would like to see another environmental analysis, rather than a permit extension,” he said.

But he added he doesn’t find Seabridge Gold’s request “unreasonable” considering the impacts of COVID-19 on government and industry.

Seabridge Gold may be taking a long time to find a partner because KSM mine “isn’t a sure bet,” Chambers said, and the $6 billion expense and challenging topography make it harder for a company to “justify that kind of investment.”

Greg Knox, executive director of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, said he finds COVID-19 to be “a poor excuse” for a further extension.

“They’ve had five years since their permit. They received another five years and we’re only a year into that extension and they’re already asking for additional time,” he said.

Rugged peaks and glaciers near the proposed KSM mine. The KSM mine project is composed of four mineral deposits, the Kerr, Sulphurets, Mitchell and Iron Cap. The view north in this image shows the proposed location of the Sulphurets open pit mine and future waste rock dump. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

It wouldn’t be the first time a controversial B.C. development has lost its environmental assessment certificate due to failing to start work on the project. Jumbo Glacier Resort received its certificate in 2004, was given an extra five years to substantially start the project by 2014, and still hadn’t met the conditions of the certificate by that year. The Minister of Environment at the time deemed the certificate invalid. The company launched an appeal, but the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the decision last year.

Knox said he’d also like to see the mine reviewed under the new provincial Environmental Assessment Act and the new federal Impact Assessment Act.

If Seabridge Gold is not able to achieve a substantial start by 2024, “it should be required to undergo a new environmental assessment,” he said.

“Regulations change, mining practices change and the public should be provided a new opportunity to ensure this project is built in the best possible manner that minimizes risks.”

People in B.C. and Alaska are concerned about contamination and harm to fish habitat. Mining will take place in the Mitchell and Sulphurets watersheds, which drain into the transboundary Unuk River. Seabridge has countered this criticism by pointing out water will be taken away from the mine site via a 23-kilometre pipeline and treated at the tailings management facility. That facility will be located in the Teigen and Treaty watersheds, which drain into the salmon-bearing Bell-Irving and Nass Rivers.

Seabridge Gold has also said it’s exceeded the environmental requirements of its certificate by focusing on smaller open pits, converting to electric equipment instead of diesel and working to improve water treatment.

However, Chris Sergeant, a research scientist at the University of Montana who studies Alaskan salmon populations, said the proposed mine may still impact water quality in the Unuk River.

“Water that contacts the mine on the Unuk River side will drain directly into a water storage reservoir,” Sergeant said. “This water would receive treatment before discharge into the Unuk watershed.”

But there isn’t currently a proven method for sufficient removal of selenium — which has been shown to negatively impact fish populations — and mine operations are expected to increase selenium levels in the water, Sergeant said.

Article updated at 10:40 a.m. PST on Aug. 20, 2020, to add comment from Chris Sergeant.

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The adult population of genetically unique westslope cutthroat trout in a river in B.C.’s Kootenay region dropped by 93 per cent this past fall compared with 2017 levels, according to a monitoring report from Teck Resources.

The company operates four giant metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley region, where levels of selenium pollution, which originates from the mines’ many waste rock piles, have increased steadily for decades.

Teck has conducted fish surveys in the Upper Fording River since 2012. A fall presentation from Teck reviewed by The Narwhal shows that monitoring conducted by contractors in September and October 2019 identified a precipitous decline in adult and juvenile westslope cutthroat trout in the Upper Fording and that such a decline “represents a trigger” for a population crash.

Upper Fording River adult trout counts dropped 93 per cent and juvenile counts dropped 74 per cent from 2017 levels, according to Teck.

In Harmer Creek, near Teck’s Elkview mine, adult fish counts dropped 26 per cent and juveniles 96 per cent. In Grave Creek, near the Line Creek mine, juveniles declined 25 per cent, but counts for adults increased 25 per cent compared to 2018 counts.

“It’s very significant to see that drastic of a drop in numbers for westslope cutthroat trout,” University of Montana biologist Erin Sexton told The Narwhal. “It’s very unfortunate news.”

Sexton began studying selenium in the Elk Valley in the early 2000s and was involved in a process that led to the creation of the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan. It is under this plan that the province has continued permitting Teck’s mining operations, despite growing selenium pollution.

The plan was informed by a 2014 report prepared for Environment and Climate Change Canada by Dennis Lemley, a renowned selenium expert. The report warned that selenium pollution from mining in the Elk Valley was negatively impacting fish and concluded that increases in selenium pollution would inevitably lead to “a total population collapse of sensitive species like the westslope cutthroat trout.”

Sexton said she was disappointed but not surprised to see Teck reporting the population drop. “It’s déjà vu,” she said. 

A meandering bend in the Upper Fording River where high levels of selenium have been measured. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

Sexton added it is evident B.C. ignored available science when structuring permits for Teck’s Elk Valley operations. Under the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, the province allows Teck to continue operating its mines as long as the company is working toward a long-term plan to stabilize selenium levels by 2023 and reduce levels after 2030.

“I think for a lot of us who participated in the process to create the plan, it feels like a wasted effort because the province didn’t set any limits that are protective of fish and aquatic life.”

The Elk Valley is a prized spot for fly-fishers, who refer to these unique trout — which have dark freckles, orange gashes along the throat and small teeth lining the mouth — as “cutties.”

Westslope cutthroat trout are only found in a small portion of their original habitat and are thought to be one of the first species to populate B.C. after the last ice age. Pacific populations are listed federally as a species of special concern.

The trout living in the slow-flowing waters of the Upper Fording River are considered genetically distinct because they exist above Josephine Falls, which isolates them from other trout in the Elk and Fording Rivers.

“The Upper Fording is the closest to the biggest mines,” Sexton said, “so it has the highest levels of selenium in the system. As you move away the levels decrease.”

Selenium, a naturally occurring element, is commonly found in coal-rich deposits and is essential to human health in very small doses. While selenium can be toxic to humans at high levels, even small amounts can be harmful to egg-laying creatures, including fish and birds. In trout it can cause spinal and facial deformities, missing gill plates and reproductive failure.

Westslope cutthroat trout showing spinal deformities. Photo: Environment Canada

A westslope cutthroat trout with a missing gill plate, a telltale deformity caused by selenium poisoning. This trout was caught in 2014 in Coal Creek, a tributary of the Elk River. Photo: Environment Canada

Westslope cutthroat trout exhibiting deformities have been found in the Elk Valley with increasing frequency in recent years.

B.C.’s general water quality guidelines recommend selenium levels be kept to two parts billion to protect aquatic life. Yet in waters throughout the Elk Valley, selenium has been measured at levels higher than 150 parts per billion.

Sexton pointed out the province’s guidelines for daily selenium levels in the Upper Fording River allowed 155 parts per billion in 2014 with an expectation they would be reduced to 71 parts per billion by 2023.

“From a scientific perspective, I’ve never understood how the province of B.C. has been able to set these thresholds for the entire Elk River Valley that are dangerous to fish health,” Sexton said.

“I always say that when I read Teck’s permit, it looks to me like the Elk and Fording Rivers are a sacrifice zone.”

In response to emailed questions, David Karn, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said the province is aware of the recent trout monitoring results and “is concerned about the declines identified.”

For decades B.C. failed to address selenium pollution in the Elk Valley. Now no one knows how to stop it.

Karn said third party consultants are investigating the causes of the declines and Teck is reporting to provincial regulators bi-weekly on the findings and its efforts to limit risk. He added that B.C. is working with other provinces and the federal government to oversee the investigation as well as proposed fish population studies this year.

Chris Stannell, public relations manager for Teck, told The Narwhal the “reasons for the lower fish counts are unknown at this time” and the company has put together a team of external experts to evaluate possible causes of the population crash, including “water quality, flow conditions, habitat availability, predation and other factors.”

“We take this issue very seriously,” Stannell wrote in an email. He said the company has invested $437 million to implement the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan and estimates an additional $649 to $690 million will be invested in the region, in large part for water treatment facilities, over the next five years.

In 2014, Teck introduced the $600-million Line Creek water treatment plant, which caused an accidental fish kill six months after coming online. In 2017, the plant was taken offline after Teck discovered the treatment process was releasing a more bioavailable form of selenium into the environment, meaning it was taken up more readily by biotic life. 

Since the plant was recommissioned in 2018, Teck has seen “reductions in selenium concentrations downstream of the operating Line Creek treatment facility,” said Stannell, adding that two more water treatment plants are being built.

Teck’s five metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

More mines planned for the Elk Valley

Lars Sander-Green, an analyst with the local conservation group Wildsight, said the population collapse should lead to a change in the way coal mining is done in the Elk Valley. But, he said, that’s far from the case.

“What’s really crazy is even with this massive loss of fish, we still have Teck pushing hard on new mining expansion that would push farther into this river,” Sander-Green said.

Recently Teck began the early consultation process for a major expansion of its Fording River operations, the largest of the company’s mining operations in the Elk Valley. The Castle expansion project would extend the Fording River operations “for decades,” according to a February presentation Teck delivered to the District of Sparwood. According to Teck, the Fording River operations produce 8.5 to 9.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal for use in steelmaking each year.

“It’s another major expansion but it’s only going to be subject to a B.C. environmental review and not likely a federal review because it’s an expansion and not a new mine,” Sander-Green said.

The proposed expansion comes at the same time as proposals for new Elk Valley mines from three other companies.

“What’s happening with trout suggests things need to change in a big way if we’re going to have fish in that area,” he said. “It creates a lot of concerns about what is going to happen downstream in the long term.”

Concerns across the border have been mounting for several years as the Elk Valley watershed drains into the Koocanusa reservoir, which extends into Montana. Selenium levels are rising in that reservoir.

“This wildlife and these landscapes don’t know political boundaries,” Sexton said. 

Teck coal mine in B.C.’s Elk Valley. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

“I know these things get polarized across international boundaries, but I have a lot in common with people in the Elk Valley and I see it as a shared watershed. I think the U.S. gets pitted against Canada, or Montana against B.C., but I think we should all be being good stewards of our rivers together.”

She added it has been “very complicated and challenging” for U.S. agencies and communities to be collectively outside the decision-making process in B.C., which has permitted increasing mining activity and allowed selenium pollution to grow in the Elk Valley through the decades.

“It creates this complicated environmental challenge for anyone who is a stakeholder in the watershed,” Sexton said, adding there is a frustrating lack of transparency from both B.C. and Teck when it comes to monitoring and sharing raw data.

Canada has no specific, legally binding regulations on the pollution that emanates from coal mines. While such effluent regulations exist for metal mines, specific rules for coal mines have been stuck in limbo for years. 

The most recent draft of the regulations proposes two sets of rules, one for all coal mines and another tailored to Elk Valley operations. 

The rules proposed for Teck’s mines are weaker as a result of years of lobbying, Sander-Green said.

When asked about those lobbying efforts, Teck’s Stannell referred The Narwhal to a 2018 sustainability report that states Teck “remained actively engaged in the review process for the draft regulations through 2018.”

“For Teck, the final design of these regulations is critical for long-term planning for our steelmaking coal operations in Western Canada. We will continue to participate in the review and dialogue process with the Government of Canada in 2019 to help ensure the regulations are well designed and science based.”

Sander-Green said he thinks the federal and provincial governments are capitulating to Teck.

“B.C. has shown again and again they are willing to sacrifice our clean water and fish for coal mining revenue. We’ve seen that for decades now.”

The province first established a task force to address selenium in the late 1990s. 

“Since then problems have been getting worse and worse. A lot of talk but no action,” Sander-Green said.

He said Wildsight is asking for a moratorium on new mining in the Elk Valley. 

“We’re in a big hole and we have to stop digging.”

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The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Yukon government is seeking $25 million from Yukon Zinc in bankruptcy proceedings to cover the costs of the company’s shuttered and contaminated Wolverine mine site in southeast Yukon.

Yukon Zinc operated the mine until 2015, when it was temporarily shuttered due to unfavourable market conditions. But the mine never reopened and in 2018 the Yukon government stepped in to handle environmental care and maintenance of the flooded site, which contains waste water contaminated with cadmium, selenium, copper and lead.

Over the course of a three-day hearing in late January, government asked the Yukon Supreme Court to recognize the debt, arguing it has “a provable claim” to $35,548,650 for remediation of the environmental damage at the site and that this claim “ranks above” any other creditor claims against the Wolverine property.

According to court documents, during the course of the mine’s operation Yukon Zinc only paid around one third — $10.6 million — of the $35.5 million security required of it, leaving it owing owing around $25 million earmarked to clean up the mess left behind.

In July 2019, the Yukon government petitioned to have Yukon Zinc sent into receivership so its assets could be liquidated and sold. That request was granted by the Supreme Court of Yukon on Sept.13, with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. taking control of proceedings and the mine.

Yukon Zinc — which is owned by Jinduicheng Canada Resources Corp., a private Chinese company — argues that the government can’t claim the $35.5 million security as a debt, because the government hasn’t actually spent any of its own money at the site, only part of the $10.6 million in security Yukon Zinc managed to pay. 

Wolverine mine ‘has left an environmental scar on the territory’

Prior to 2003, remediation of abandoned mine sites was a federal, not territorial, responsibility. 

“This is the first litigation that [the Yukon Government] has initiated … that relates to defaults on the part of a mineral claim/licence holder for a mine,” since the territory took on this responsibility, Laurie Henderson, legal representative for the Yukon government, said in an emailed statement. 

During the final day of the recent hearings, Yukon’s lawyer, John Porter, told the court the Wolverine mine “has left an environmental scar on the territory.”

At the request of his client, Porter declined to comment on the hearing outside of the courtroom.

A request for comment sent to Yukon Zinc via email went unreturned. All phone numbers listed for the company on its website have been disconnected.

Location of the Wolverine mine in Yukon. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

The missing millions

The Wolverine mine site — primarily rich in zinc but with traces of silver, copper, lead and gold — is located in Yukon, approximately halfway between the communities of Watson Lake and Ross River on Kaska First Nation traditional territory.

In the Yukon, mine security increases as sites develop so risk can be assessed over time. In 2006, when Yukon Zinc first opened Wolverine, the company paid an initial deposit of just $1.78 million. 

Operations at Wolverine, which is an underground mine, included construction of a work camp, mill, air strip, tailings storage facility, landfill and a 25-kilometre access road connecting the mine to the Robert Campbell Highway. Commercial production began in 2012 and by 2013 the necessary security increased to $10.6 million, required in scheduled instalments — which Yukon Zinc was consistently late in making.

The company filed for and was granted creditor protection when the mine closed in 2015. Yukon Zinc made its way out of protection in October of that year and brought its total contribution up to the $10.6 million mark, but the mine remained closed.

The Wolverine mine. The underground mine is flooded and its tailings facility has risked overflowing in the years since the mine’s closure in 2015. Photo: Yukon government

In a Yukon Supreme Court document filed July 17, 2019, the Yukon government stated that between 2016 and 2018, inspections found conditions at the site to be rapidly deteriorating. 

The underground mine was flooded, and so contaminated water had to be diverted to the mine’s tailings storage facility, designed to hold waste from mining operations. With no water treatment in place at this time, the water in the tailings pond swelled, and risked overflowing.  

In the same document, the government noted inspection reports issued in 2018 and 2019 identified “serious concerns related to water management and an overall concern about Yukon Zinc’s capacity to undertake the necessary care and maintenance activities at the mine.” 

As a result of “deteriorating environmental conditions at the mine site,” the Yukon government bumped up the required security to $35.5 million in May 2018. By fall the government was forced to step in, beginning environmental maintenance of the site, including the establishment of water treatment.

Selenium a problem in Wolverine tailings

A 2017 government report on the site found that water in the underground mine, even during the period in which there were no mining operations, “exceeds discharge limits for most metal parameters, with exceedances of cadmium, copper, lead, selenium, and zinc.” 

Water samples from the tailings pond registered three different classes of problem contaminants which “require removal to ultra-low levels for discharge,” including cyanide, selenium and metals. 

Moreover, a “significant portion of the total selenium present in the water is selenocyanate and ‘unknown’ organo-selenium species that are not normally present in mine-impacted waters,” the report notes.

Although selenium is an essential nutrient to human health in tiny doses, it can be poisonous at higher levels. Even at low levels, selenium is dangerous to fish, capable of causing crippling deformities.

For decades B.C. failed to address selenium pollution in the Elk Valley. Now no one knows how to stop it.

Both the water in the flooded underground mine and the water in the tailings pond — itself a source of contamination, as it contains the left-overs from the mining process — are contaminated, says Lewis Rifkind, mining analyst for the Yukon Conservation Society. Water from the tailings is presently being treated by a system which allows cleaned water to be pumped out, which was put in place by the Yukon government to prevent it from spilling over and contaminating other water sources.

“The stuff coming out of the site is pretty nasty,” Rifkind told The Narwhal, noting selenium is a large concern at the site. 

Buyer wanted

What the government really wants is a new buyer to return the site to production, John Fox, Yukon government’s assistant deputy minister for oil, gas and mineral resources, told The Narwhal.

With input from government, PricewaterhouseCoopers submitted a sales and marketing plan to the court in January that anticipates the sale of the mine by the end of June. 

The plan relies on an “aggressive timeline,” Fox admitted. 

“With that [sales] plan, we would also expect the successful proponent to provide us with security that … would ultimately link to the new company’s reclamation and closure plan,” Fox said, adding new reclamation and closure plans would be subject to a new environmental assessment.

“We entered into this receivership with our eyes open and we feel there is a very high likelihood that the mine will sell.”

In an affidavit filed Aug. 1, 2019, Fox stated the estimated cost to continue managing contaminated water at the site to the end of the 2020 fiscal year at $6 million. Fox said the $10.6 million in Yukon Zinc security held by government can cover costs until the end of November 2020.

The Yukon government has already directed $5.8 million of the $10.6 million from Yukon Zinc in its possession to pay for the cost of work it has already done at the site to treat and discharge 15,000 cubic metres of water from the facility, Pendergast said, adding more treatment will take place this spring. 

“Future costs will depend on the timing of a potential sale of the property, as well as the need to  address emerging issues as they arise on site,” Natalie Pendergast, communications representative for the Yukon department of Energy, Mines and Resources said.

Yukon Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Duncan, who presided over the January hearing, has reserved her decision on the issues at hand for the time being, although she has stated she recognizes the urgency of the matter, Pendergast said via email. 

Fox said whatever the outcome of the courts, “it’s fair to say that Yukon — unlike [Yukon Zinc] — can’t walk away from those obligations. So we will be spending the money we need to ensure those risks are addressed.”

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Wet tailings and ‘bad rock’

Rifkind said he heard “rumblings” of the possibility of a sale, but thinks it’s “dreaming in technicolour,” as the cost and time to pump out the site, clean it up and make a workable mine again would be undesirable to a buyer. Moreover, the primary product of the mine — zinc, which is primarily used to protect iron and steel from rust — is not a high-roller commodity, he noted.

“Just getting to the site is going to be expensive. It’s got to be remediated and closed up and you need lots of money for that,” Rifkind said. 

Full remediation is expected to cost another $25 million, although Rifkind said he has to wonder if that will be enough, given the kind of barebones upkeep a site like that requires. 

“Keeping the roads open and that sort of stuff, basic maintenance, none of it is cheap — that’s why you burn through money like crazy.”

Rifkind said the fact that the site is water-rich — the underground mine remains flooded and the tailings impoundment is threatening to overflow — is another disincentive for a buyer. 

Wolverine was also built with a wet tailings impoundment, a waste storage technology that fell out of favour after the 2014 Mount Polley mine disaster, which saw the collapse of a tailings dam that released 25 million cubic metres of mine slurry and waste water into the local environment and Quesnel Lake in Likely, B.C. An expert panel report on the disaster recommended best available practices and technology — including dry stack tailings — be used for tailings storage when possible.

“Could you imagine if you bought the mine, put it back into operation, dewatered it and did all the right things, and then tried to get a wet tailings dam through the (environmental assessment process)?” Rifkind said.  

“I mean, the entire Yukon would scream — we just don’t accept wet tailings dams anymore,” Rifkind said. 

“Plus,” he added, “it’s a mine that, when it was operating, was infamous for instability, rock, falls, that sort of thing — it’s something called ‘bad rock,” said Rifkind. “So you need a lot of money just to stabilize the site.”

A rendering of the tailings pond facility at the Wolverine mine. Image: Yukon Zinc

New rules in place

As to why Yukon Zinc was allowed to operate for so long without providing the full required security deposit, Pendergast said via email that for the government to take enforcement action the mine operator had to be in non-compliance of the terms and conditions of its licence, but during most of the temporary closure, Yukon Zinc was in compliance.

“In the end, Yukon Zinc Corporation’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions of its licence increased the closure costs of the mine,” Pendergast added, noting that the government is looking at the options in its toolbox when it comes to reconsidering the terms and conditions of licences to be more proactive in addressing the risk of mines. 

Some of those tools have already been put in place.

Shortly after the security for Wolverine was set at $10.6 million in 2013, the government changed its rules to require security for any critical infrastructure that has to be constructed for the mine during its entire lifecycle, according to Fox.

“Yukon Zinc required a water treatment plant on site. Our old rules basically said, ‘if they don’t need the water treatment system right now, they don’t need to secure it. We will get that (money) when they will build it later and everything will be fine,’ ” Fox said. “Of course they didn’t build it and everything wasn’t fine.” 

This policy in and of itself is a “change” and the government believes it will go a long way to preventing a recurrence of a situation like Wolverine again, he said. 

“The Wolverine is the first mine in the Yukon since devolution where a company has failed to pay the required security,” Fox noted. 

In November of last year, the Yukon government announced it was considering the creation of a reclamation fund, but hasn’t said yet who will be responsible for paying into it.

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