Study finds pollution 350 miles downstream of Canadian coal mines

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey have concluded that a large coal-mining operation in British Columbia is sending pollution more than 350 miles downstream into the Columbia River.

The study also found that selenium levels in the Upper Columbia watershed continue to rise in British Columbia, Montana and Idaho, despite Elk Valley Resources’ $1.4 billion investment in technology to remove selenium, a trace element that can hamper fish reproduction and lead to gill, facial and spinal deformities.

The study, published late in the Aug. 13 edition of  Environmental Science and Technology Letters, plotted selenium over a 17-year period and found that increasing levels parallel the expansion of an open-pit coal mining operation in British Columbia’s Elk River Valley. 

To conduct the study, U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Madison Foster compared selenium concentrations at five sites downstream of coal mines that are operated by Elk Valley Resources to those reported at a nearby basin with similar geology but no large coal mines.

Foster’s analysis found “multiple lines of evidence that [selenium] from the Elk River Mines is transported [357 river miles] and may pose risks to aquatic life in the transboundary Columbia River.”  

Foster told Montana Free Press that she was struck by both the volume and geographic reach of the pollution. She said selenium concentrations “are rising much farther downstream than previously documented” and most of that increase can be attributed to coal mines in British Columbia. 

By the time selenium-contaminated water reaches the furthest downstream measuring station incorporated in Foster’s study, it’s traveled through Montana and Idaho and back into British Columbia. Along the way, the water makes its way through two reservoirs: Lake Koocanusa, which spans the U.S.-Canada border, and British Columbia’s Kootenay Lake.

Michael Jamison, campaigns director for the Northern Rockies region of the National Parks Conservation Association, said Foster’s research builds on a study one of Foster’s colleagues authored in 2023, which found that the Elk River mines put unprecedented levels of selenium and nitrate pollution into the Kootenai watershed. Both suggest tighter regulation and stronger environmental assurances are required to protect transboundary ecosystems, Jamison said. Such protections could include increasing the reclamation bond held by British Columbia or establishing biological offsets — the protection of nearby landscapes to make up for those that have been damaged.

“We’re going to need bigger bonding. We know that because we have these unprecedented levels [of selenium] and this unprecedented distance,” Jamison said, adding that generally looser environmental regulations in Canada add to his concern.

“Here, we tend to write our regulations in ink and hold people to that; In Canada, they seem to write guidelines with a pencil and keep the eraser handy,” Jamison said. “We need to look carefully at the terms of the International Joint Commission more than ever.”

The commission Jamison referred to is composed of an equal number of Americans and Canadians who investigate water quantity and quality issues associated with waterways that span the U.S.-Canada border. The findings of an IJC investigation underpin the policy changes that the commission recommends to the relevant governments. The IJC, which was established by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, made history last year when it pledged to incorporate the perspectives and concerns of Indigenous governments in its investigation of the Kootenai watershed.

Erin Sexton, a researcher with the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, is a consultant to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, one of six tribal governments involved in the IJC’s referral. 

Sexton said the IJC is opening an opportunity for public participation in an arena that could use more transparency and greater stakeholder engagement. She said she hopes the increasing scrutiny will drive British Columbia to conclude that Elk Valley Resources is out of compliance with a provision of its decade-old permit directing mine owners to stabilize and decrease pollution entering downstream waterways. An expansion of the five existing mines should be off the table, Sexton added.

Elk Valley Resources spokesperson Chris Stannell argued that Foster’s study demonstrates that selenium concentrations “have stabilized in recent years” and highlighted his company’s investments to expand water treatment. The company’s existing plants can treat more than 20 million gallons of water per day, and the company estimates that it will nearly double that capacity by 2027, Stannell said.

Asked if the company had considered increasing its bonding or establishing a blind trust to cover the costs of future reclamation requirements, Stannell said Elk Valley Resources “meets all current bonding requirements” established by British Columbia regulators and is “committed to meeting all reclamation obligations at no cost to government or taxpayers.”

The study follows two other major developments, one commercial and one regulatory. In July, Glencore paid nearly $7 billion to acquire Elk Valley Resources, a company former owner Teck had spun off from its other mining operations. One of the world’s largest mining companies, Glencore is a familiar name in northwest Montana. In 1999, the Swiss company acquired an aluminum plant in Columbia Falls, which has been a Superfund site with an uncertain clean-up trajectory for nearly a decade.

Right around the time that the Elk Valley Resources sale was finalized, federal regulators in Canada indicted Teck on five counts of contaminating a tributary of the Elk River, which feeds into Lake Koocanusa, with waste rock from its mines. Those charges pertained to an investigation that occurred in 2023.

A spokesperson from Environment and Climate Change Canada did not respond to an email from MTFP seeking information on the indictments and comment on the USGS researchers’ findings by press time Monday.

Sorting out an enforcement framework with these multi-jurisdictional issues isn’t a struggle unique to Canada. States on this side of the border are also grappling with adopting and effectively enforcing water quality regulations.

Although Montana has adopted a selenium standard that scientists deem protecting of aquatic life in Lake Kooanusa, selenium levels routinely exceed established standards, both in the lake and the river that flows from it. As a result, Montana has frequently exceeded the selenium standard Idaho regulators have adopted to protect the portions of the Kootenai River located within its borders.

Robert Steed, a surface water manager for the Coeur D’Alene region of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said the Kootenai River has been designated an “impaired” river due to selenium levels, and an excess of selenium has been found in the tissue samples taken from mountain whitefish.

Steed said he’s concerned that costly, multi-year efforts to restore beleaguered burbot and white sturgeon populations could be jeopardized by a mining operation hundreds of miles upstream. 

“To see pollution be the limiting [factor], rather than the habitat that we’re trying to create for burbot, white sturgeon and cutthroat — that’s sad,” he said. 

Genny Hoyle, an environmental director with the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, echoed that frustration. In an email to MTFP, Hoyle said the tribe is finding concerning levels of selenium in endangered white sturgeon and burbot, a native gamefish species. 

“The Kootenai River is at a crucial point,” she said. “Prompt and adequate action is needed to prevent further degradation of the health of the beautiful and diverse Kootenai ecosystem.”

The IJC is accepting comments on the Kootenai watershed through Aug. 27 as an initial step in its two-year investigation.

Amanda Eggert is an environmental reporter for the Montana Free Press, a Helena-based nonprofit newsroom, and can be contacted at aeggert@montanafreepress.org.