Eight American senators have written to B.C. Premier John Horgan urging him to address downstream contamination from the province’s metal and coal mines.

The letter — an unprecedented joint undertaking from all senators from the four states bordering the province, including both Republicans and Democrats — outlines concerns about potential environmental and economic impacts from B.C. mines that pollute rivers flowing into the U.S.

“As you know, Alaska, Washington, Idaho and Montana have tremendous natural resources that need to be protected against impacts from B.C. hard rock and coal-mining activities near the headwaters of shared rivers, many of which support environmentally and economically significant salmon populations,” the senators wrote in the two-page letter, released Thursday.

They noted that Indigenous peoples — “whose lands are affected by past, present and proposed mines near transboundary rivers” — have also voiced concerns and have asked governments on both sides of the border to undertake cumulative assessments of the impacts B.C. mines have on communities as well as on cultural and natural resources.

“These transboundary watersheds support critical water supply, recreation opportunities and wildlife habitat that support many livelihoods in local communities,” the senators wrote to Horgan, saying they are concerned about the lack of oversight of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rivers that originate in B.C.

The senators also referenced the need for binding international protections that would bring B.C.’s mining laws in line with laws in the U.S.

Jen Holmwood, Horgan’s deputy communications director and press secretary, said the premier was travelling back from Europe and had not seen the letter, which was received in his office Thursday morning. She referred questions from The Narwhal to B.C.’s ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources.

Imperial Metals’ Red Chris mine tailings pond in northwest B.C. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

‘The United States is not a settling pond’

The senators’ letter is the latest and most high-profile attempt from the U.S. to prod B.C. into cleaning up its mining act.

B.C. mines have been fouling rivers that flow into the U.S. for decades with contaminants such as acid rock drainage. Selenium from Teck Resources’ Elk Valley coal mines, which share a watershed with Idaho and Montana, has killed and deformed fish, threatening native trout and Kootenai River white sturgeon.

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

“The United States is not a settling pond for Teck Resources and the rest of Canada’s mining industry,” said former Kootenai River fishing guide Mike Rooney in a statement released Thursday by the three U.S. conservation groups — Salmon Beyond Borders, National Parks Conservation Association and Headwaters Montana — who sent the senators’ letter to media on both sides of the border.

Rooney urged Horgan and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to act “to protect our businesses, resources and citizens” by requesting intervention under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty.

“Anything less is not the solution this international problem deserves,” Rooney wrote.

The Boundary Waters Treaty aims to prevent and resolve disputes over the use of waters shared by Canada and the U.S.

Indigenous peoples have also asked the U.S. and Canadian governments to enforce the Boundary Waters Treaty.

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission commended the senators’ letter in a media statement, saying that Canada and the U.S. face “an international problem requiring international solutions.”

“The U.S. and B.C. must work vigilantly together to protect our lands and precious watersheds,” the commission said. The commission is comprised of 15 federally recognized Tribes of Southeast Alaska whose mission is to create a unified voice for Indigenous peoples across the international border who are facing impacts from development and industrialization.

Under the Boundary Waters Treaty, the U.S. and Canadian federal governments can bring disputes to the International Joint Commission, which has resolved more than 100 matters over the last century.

In their letter, the senators informed Horgan that the International Joint Commission did not convene in April for its usual meeting because it lacked a quorum. The senators noted that discussions about transboundary water issues generally occur at the commission’s annual meeting, regretting the “absence of engagement” this year.

Without the International Joint Commission, “mining companies have been partying like it’s 1909,” said Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission chair Rob Sanderson Jr., a vice-president on the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s executive council.

Last July, U.S. representatives on the commission accused Canadian commissioners of suppressing data on coal mining pollution flowing from B.C.’s Elk Valley into Montana.

A metallurgical coal mine, owned and operated by Teck Resources in B.C.’s Elk Valley. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

Alaska has expressed concern for years about B.C. mines

Both the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission and the three conservation groups pointed to the Tulsequah Chief mine, which for more than six decades has been discharging acid mine drainage into the transboundary salmon-bearing Taku River, which drains into Taku Inlet near Juneau, Alaska.

The commission alleged that the mine has been violating the international treaty for decades.

“We seek permanent protections from future disaster,” the commission said.

B.C.’s mining industry has a troubled reputation within the province as well.

In May, more than 30 groups released a report aimed at updating B.C.’s ‘archaic’ mining laws, saying reforms are required to address the ticking time bomb of abandoned mines and to protect taxpayers from millions of dollars in liabilities.

In August, 2014, a tailings pond full of toxic copper and gold mining waste breached at the Mount Polley mine in the central B.C., spilling an estimated 25 billion litres of contaminated materials into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, a source of drinking water and major spawning grounds for sockeye salmon.

No charges or fines have been laid in response to the disaster.

Christine McLean of the Concerned Citizens of Quesnel Lake launched an appeal against the Mount Polley mine being given a permit to pipe effluent into Quesnel Lake after the Mount Polley disaster. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said in a media statement that the letter to Horgan follows multiple letters the Alaska delegation has sent over the past five years to the U.S. Department of State “expressing concerns about B.C. mining practices and potential downstream effects on U.S. resources and livelihoods.”

“This letter [to Horgan] shows solidarity from our states and calls for greater protections for our transboundary watersheds,” Murkowski wrote in a statement she posted Thursday on her website.

“Reforms that ensure mining projects in British Columbia don’t impact Southeast Alaska are essential to protecting our way of life, and must include a system of financial assurances to assure sustained protections of vulnerable natural resources,” she wrote.

Ketchikan, Alaska, which calls itself the “salmon capital of the world” is downstream of several B.C. mines. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

Alaska Repulican Senator Dan Sullivan said he has been working with Canadian counterparts for several years — at local, provincial and federal levels — to raise awareness and concern about potential impacts posed by B.C. mining development to streams that flow across the border into Alaska’s southeast communities and waters.

“While we need to continue these discussions with our partners to the east, we also need to begin putting forward concrete steps that will ensure that all British Columbian mining projects have the level of oversight, monitoring, financial assurances and mitigation planning necessary to protect Alaska’s world-class fishery resources in [the] southeast,” Sullivan said in a joint statement with Murkowski.

U.S. taxpayers have spent millions restoring rivers and fisheries

The conservation groups also noted that B.C. government is considering a contentious proposal from Imperial Metals to mine the headwaters of the Skagit River, the most important salmon river in Seattle’s Puget Sound area.

“U.S. taxpayers have spent billions of dollars restoring these rivers and fisheries,” stated Salmon Beyond Borders director Jill Weitz. “It would be a tragedy to have that investment undone by B.C. mining contamination.”

Map showing the location of the ‘Doughnut Hole’ between Skagit Valley and Manning provincial parks. The Doughnut Hole lies within the headwaters of the Skagit River. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

The senators told Horgan they are concerned about the “lack of oversight” of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rivers that originate in B.C. and flow into the four states they represent. They said they have partnered with federal and state governments to improve water quality monitoring and to push for “constructive engagement” with Canada.

“We hope to encourage you, in your role as Premier, to allocate similar attention, engagement and resources to collaborative management of our shared transboundary watershed,” the senators wrote.

Among other U.S. initiatives outlined by the senators are the establishment of an interagency working group in 2017 — by the State Department, the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency — to address concerns regarding B.C.’s mining activity in transboundary watersheds and “to determine the specific mechanisms necessary to safeguard U.S. economic interests and resources.”

Senators ask Horgan to engage directly on mining issue

The U.S. Congress has also allocated US $1.8 million to the Department of the Interior for stream gauges that will provide better monitoring and water quality data at the international boundary, “including detection of any impacts from upstream mining.”

Additionally, the senators note that in April 2018, the U.S. State Department presented concerns and opportunities for collaboration to Global Affairs Canada to forge a stronger decision-making process regarding mining impacts in shared transboundary watersheds, to address the “insufficient” scoping and evaluation of past, present and future mining impacts and to ensure the use of “objective, transparent” data collection and monitoring.

Congress has directed the U.S. government to increase its work with federal, state, tribal and local partners, including local elected officials, to monitor and reduce contaminants in transboundary watersheds, the senators told Horgan.

“We have both an opportunity and a responsibility to better manage our critical shared resources in a cooperative, constructive manner,” the senators wrote. In their letter, they also requested Horgan’s “direct engagement” on the issue and asked the premier to engage in dedicated efforts to monitor transboundary water quality.

The energy ministry told The Narwhal that B.C. is “committed to working closely with our transboundary neighbours to protect and enhance our shared environment and waterways.”

In an emailed statement, the ministry also noted that “Alaska is much involved in the assessment and permitting of existing and proposed mines in the transboundary watersheds,” such as the Red Chris, Brucejack and Red Mountain mines.

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The Tulsequah Chief mine, a zinc and copper mine close to the Alaska border, has been leaking acid mine drainage into the Tulsequah River since it was first shut down in 1957 and attempts to re-open the mine have failed, along with a multitude of promises to clean up the site.

Two companies have gone bankrupt during their ownership of the Tulsequah Chief, with the current owner, Chieftain Metals, declaring bankruptcy last September and there are now reports that Black Loon Metals has backed away from a potential deal to take over the site.

Black Loon chairman, Gordon Bogden, would not say whether the company remains interested in buying the Tulsequah Chief.

“As a private company we do not comment on our investment opportunities,” Bogden said in an email.

The NDP have indicated cleanup of the Tulsequah will be a priority for the new government. In early July, Jen Holmwood, caucus spokeswoman for the NDP, said cleanup of mine “is a serious issue we’ll be looking into and have to say more on in the weeks ahead.”

Green Party leader Andrew Weaver has previously stated the abandoned mine gives B.C. “an environmental black eye.”

Mine Closure, Water Treatment, Priority for Alaskans Living Downstream

Chieftain still holds a permit to build the initial phase of the mine, but receiver Grant Thornton LLP wants to sell assets and the water treatment plant — which operated only briefly because of operating costs — to help repay creditors.

Decades of pollution, running into the Tulsequah River, have infuriated Southeast Alaskans as the Tulsequah is a tributary to the salmon-rich Taku River and there are fears that the acidic drainage could affect salmon runs.

In 2015 then mines minister Bill Bennett appeared shocked by the mess when he visited the site and promised that the mine would be cleaned up, but he later backtracked, claiming the runoff poses no environmental threat.

But a study by SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd. — which was commissioned after a risk assessment by Chieftain Metals was found to be flawed — documents details of damage to fish habitat from the acid mine drainage.

The report, released last month, looks at four zones within the river and tests showed hazards are highest in the zone closest to the discharge.

“This is likely because multiple undiluted and untreated sources of historic mine waste are discharging into the Tulsequah mainstem and side channels from surface water and groundwater inputs,” says the report.

“Metal concentrations pose unacceptable risks to fish, fish eggs and pelagic invertebrates.”

The waste includes cadmium, copper, zinc, aluminum, iron, lead, cobalt and sulphate, says the study, which recommends reducing the overland flow and doing follow-up assessments.

In some zones the contamination could be worse than documented as the study may not have captured the “worst case scenario,” according to the SLR assessment.

The new study should put an end to claims that the mine runoff is not harming fish and water quality, said Chris Zimmer, Rivers Without Borders Alaska campaign director.

“After two bankruptcies and failed attempts to sell the mine out of receivership, it is clear that the Tulsequah Chief is not a viable mine, financially, environmentally or politically,” he said.

“The only way to stop the illegal and clearly harmful acid mine drainage from the abandoned mine into the salmon-rich Taku watershed is for B.C. to honour its promises and take responsibility for mine cleanup and closure.”

New BC Gov Inherits Toxic Legacy as #Tulsequah Buyer Backs Away from Abandoned, Leaky #Mine https://t.co/BsPYWQfMxK #bcpoli @BCNDPCaucus

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 4, 2017

Trying to reopen the mine is a recipe for another bankruptcy, more pollution and exposing the Taku watershed to mining and road building, said Zimmer, who is urging the new NDP government to take a more responsible approach to the cleanup than the former BC Liberal government.

“We urge the new Minister of Energy and Mines, Michelle Mungall, to honour the promise made by her predecessor and accept responsibility for cleaning up the mess at Tulsequah Chief,” Zimmer said.

Mungall could not be contacted in time for publication.

Image: Tulsequah Mine in 2010 by Chris Miller

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Cleanup of the troubled Tulsequah Chief mine in northwest B.C., which has leaked acidic water into nearby streams and rivers for more than six decades, is again in limbo following an announcement by the owner, Toronto-based Chieftain Metals Inc., that the company is in receivership.

Chieftain, in a statement, said the accounting firm Grant Thornton “was appointed through court order as the receiver of all the assets, undertakings and properties of Chieftain.” The majority of company directors have resigned.

The court order came after a demand by West Face Capitol for repayment of a $26-million loan.

Chieftain’s properties include 65 mineral claims, but the company’s principal focus was development of the Tulsequah Chief, which it bought in 2010. At that time, Chieftain accepted responsibility for the long overdue environmental cleanup, but an interim water treatment plant operated for only six months and was closed in 2012 because of costs and technical issues.

The mine is situated beside the Tulsequah River, the largest tributary to the Taku, one of Alaska’s most important salmon rivers, and the continuing acid mine drainage has infuriated Southeast Alaskans who point to the pollution as a major reason not to trust B.C.’s rules and oversight of mines being developed along the B.C./Alaska border.

Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders said the Tulsequah Chief is a poster child for downstream concerns at a time of growing demands from Southeast Alaskans for Alaska and the U.S. State Department to work together to obtain guarantees that B.C.’s mining development won’t harm water quality, fisheries or livelihoods downstream in Alaska.

“If B.C. can’t ensure that the Tulsequah Chief is cleaned up, why should Alaskans have any trust that much larger mines like KSM won’t pollute our waters?” asked Zimmer, who is demanding that the B.C. government step in and clean up the site, rather than relying on mining companies to clean up the site.

The KSM mine, about 35 kilometres from the Alaska border, which will tap into one of the largest gold and copper deposits in the world, is one of about a dozen B.C. mines in the transboundary areas in various stages of application, planning and development.

Last year, Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett flew over the Tulsequah Chief mine site and promised that the mess would be cleaned up. However, he then appeared to backtrack, saying scientists did not believe the acid mine drainage was causing any environmental harm.

That is a claim disputed by many of the Southeast Alaskan organizations, tribes and politicians anxiously watching the proliferation of B.C. mines near salmon rivers flowing into Southeast Alaska and there are growing demands for the U.S. federal government to step in and refer the issue of transboundary mines to the International Joint Commission.

“The size of the watersheds and valuable fisheries at risk and the growing evidence that neither B.C. nor its mining industry can be trusted, clearly shows Alaska cannot go it alone with B.C.,” Zimmer said.

“We need the help of the U.S. federal government and the authority of the Boundary Waters Treaty to ensure that B.C. and its mining industry pay for the true costs of mining rather than risking fisheries and water quality downstream,” he said.

The Tulsequah Chief was closed by Cominco in 1957 without any cleanup or reclamation of the site. It was bought by Redfern Corp. in 1992, but numerous government warnings and reclamation orders were ignored and Redfern filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

“Since the mining companies have been unable to halt the acid mine drainage, it’s time for B.C. to honour the promises made by Minister Bill Bennett last August and clean up this mess,” Zimmer said.

Energy and Mines Ministry spokesmen could not be contacted by time of publication.

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Long-held perceptions of Canada as a country with strict environmental standards and B.C. as a province that values natural beauty are taking a near-fatal beating in Southeast Alaska, where many now regard Canadians as bad neighbours who are unilaterally making decisions that could threaten the region’s two major economic drivers.

Fishing and tourism — each billion-dollar industries — are the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska, where glaciers sweep down into rivers home to five species of wild salmon and massive snow-covered peaks tower over fertile wetlands.

Tourism accounts for 10,900 jobs in the Alaska Panhandle and salmon fishing employs 7,300 people.

Air and water are the only ways into communities such as Juneau, the state capital, and almost seven million hectares, or three-quarters of Southeast Alaska, are within the Tongass National Forest, where industrial activity is limited.

But, upstream, in northwest B.C., there is a new-style gold rush with an unprecedented number of applications for open-pit gold and copper mines, some made viable by construction of the Northwest Transmission Line and all requiring road access.

Alaskan politicians, tribes, fishing organizations and environmental groups have come together in a rare show of unity to condemn B.C.’s push to approve mines close to major transboundary salmon rivers, such as the Stikine, Taku and Unuk, which run from B.C. into Alaska. Tensions are running so high the groups are asking the International Joint Commission, designed to resolve Canada/U.S. water problems, to step in.

Canada is increasingly viewed as a “bad actor,” whose record — most recently illustrated by the Mount Polley mine tailings dam collapse — shows that the province’s environmental regulations and oversight is not strong enough to protect downstream communities.

“It’s the new wild west,” said Heather Hardcastle, a commercial fisherman and co-ordinator of Salmon Beyond Borders, pointing out that, even though Alaska has nothing to gain and everything to lose, Alaskans are being denied meaningful input into mine decisions.

10 Advanced Mining Projects in Northwestern B.C.

The new mines include Imperial Metals’ Red Chris, a copper and gold mine operated by the same company that owns Mount Polley, and Seabridge Gold’s massive KSM (Kerr-Sulpherets-Mitchell) mine, 30 kilometres from the U.S border and Misty Fjords National Monument, which will open up mining of the largest undeveloped gold reserve in the world. KSM has provincial and federal environmental assessment approval and is waiting for permits.

According to B.C.’s Ministry of Energy and Mines there are 10 advanced projects in the northwest corner of B.C. and numerous others in exploration phases.

Graphic: Salmon Beyond Borders

They include Kitsault (under construction), Silvertip (provincial permit granted in June), Tulsequah Chief (construction started, but project delayed), Brucejack (Mines Act permit application under review), Kutcho and Schaft Creek (both in the environmental assessment pre-application stage).

In comparison, there are only five operating mines in Alaska, of which two are in Southeast Alaska and one of which uses dry stack tailings, the method of dealing with acid-generating mine waste favoured by the expert panel that investigated the Mount Polley dam collapse.

The Canadian system appears to aim “to get to yes fast,” without consideration of other values when it comes to resource extraction, said Jev Shelton, a commercial fisherman and former member of the Pacific Salmon Commission, the joint Canadian/U.S. regulatory body designed to protect salmon stocks.

“It is certainly triggering a fair bit of anger,” Shelton said.

B.C. Moving 'Full Speed Ahead'

The pace and scale of development is huge, said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders.

“B.C. is going full speed ahead without any brakes. It looks as if they’re trying to move as fast as they can before Alaska puts up hurdles.”

There is growing indignation that B.C. is not listening to Alaskan concerns and that additional input, promised in May after Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett met with Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, amounts to little more than window-dressing.

“We were a bit stunned by Bill Bennett giving us the table scraps and saying Alaska can come in at the final stages of permitting — they’re saying we will involve you when the final decision has been made to build the mine,” Zimmer said.

Alaskan Concerns Ignored

Gillnetter and fisheries consultant Lindsey Bloom agrees that Alaskan questions are being ignored.

“Since I started working on this issue, the disregard of Canadian officials towards us is concerning,” she said.

While Mallott and Bennett were meeting in B.C., a group of Alaskan tribal leaders, fishing industry representatives and environmental advocates met with high-level provincial government staff.

However, it was an exercise in frustration because of the lack of answers or acknowledgement of downstream concerns, according to several people who attended the meeting.

“We tried to explain we don’t want more say in the permitting process, we want something to put us on an equal footing with B.C.,” Hardcastle said.

B.C. government staff appeared to think their task was to explain the process instead of listening to concerns and suggestions, said several members of the Alaskan delegation.

Mallott, who is leading an Alaskan transboundary waters working group, said in an interview with DeSmog Canada, that, during their meeting, Bennett was amenable to the notion of more Alaskan involvement and he has been invited to Alaska to continue the conversation.

Staff who have looked at B.C.’s technical permitting and assessment of mines believe the rules in B.C. and Alaska are generally equivalent, said Mallott.

“But there are significant differences. Whether the entire range of environmental assessment and permitting is robust enough to protect both B.C. and U.S. and Alaskan interests is still something we all need to be made more comfortable with,” he said.

“We would want Alaskan officials at the table when decisions are made in such areas of permitting that it is possible that catastrophic events could take place.”

Mount Polley Tailings Dam Collapse Stokes Fears Downstream

The pace of development and the cumulative impacts of the mines in B.C. are alarming, but it is the failures that haunt Alaskans.

The image of 24-million cubic metres of mine tailings and waste water sweeping down from the Mount Polley tailings dam is etched into memories, but there are others such as the constant irritant of the ongoing acid drainage from the Tulsequah Chief mine.

“It underlines the Canadian government’s lack of commitment to what happens in the river,” said commercial fisherman Len (Pete) Peterson.

The copper and gold mine, near the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku Rivers, has been leaking acid since Cominco stopped mining in 1957. Since 1989, there have been numerous remediation and pollution abatement orders from the B.C. government, but the leakage continues.

Earlier this year the province gave Chieftain Metals Corp., the latest owner, permission to re-open the mine and the company is currently trying to obtain financing. However, hurdles include opposition from the Taku River Tlingit First Nation. In an attempt to circumvent the problem, the company is proposing a barging system, instead of an access road, but that is likely to be a problem for Alaskan gillnetters.

At Johnny Mountain, close to the Iskut River, operations ceased in 1993 and the company attempted to burn and bury equipment. Although there has been some soil remediation, what threat remains of acid rock drainage from the underground operation is unclear.

“They shoved (the equipment) into the mountain and blew it up,” said miner Joe Bradley, who recently flew over the area.

The test of B.C.’s process is how it is carried out and the “real world” results, Zimmer said.

“Alaska understands the B.C. process. Where has it gotten us? Mount Polley disaster, Tulsequah Chief and five decades of acid mine drainage, renewed talk of Taku River barging, a total lack of involvement on the evaluation of the Red Chris mine, a denial of Alaska’s request for a KSM panel review,” Zimmer said.

Photo: Chris Zimmer

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