Glacier Media’s climate and environmental reporter Stefan Labbé has a disturbing report about heavy metals and other pollutants in waters moving from Canadian coal mines to the USA. The item is headlined B.C. coal mines linked to record-breaking toxin spike in U.S. waters.
Along with nitrate and sulphate, selenium levels have exceeded Canadian water standards in B.C.’s Elk Valley on multiple occasions. Between 2015 and 2022, 55 inspections led the B.C. government to issue 19 warnings and 13 referrals for administrative penalties, including a nearly $16-million fine issued to owner Teck Resources Inc. earlier this year.
Other third-party studies have raised questions about the impact of coal dust on the nearby communities. But until recently, no comprehensive study has tracked water pollution past the last mine, as the river meanders 80 kilometres south into Montana, where it empties into the Koocanusa Reservoir.
This month, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a study showing the Kootenai watershed had seen an unprecedented increase in selenium.
According to Health Canada, while trace amounts are needed for good health, overexposure to selenium may result in muscle, brain, stomach and intestinal disorders. Health officials warn supplement consumers to limit intake of selenium to 200 micrograms, An mcg is one-millionth of a gram, so very small amounts of selenium can be damaging.
In 2021, I wrote about Teck being fined $60 million for releasing selenium and other toxins from the area of its coal mines:
And, as usual, Indigenous people were victims of industrial pollution. In this case it was the local Ktunaxa First Nation.
A $60 million dollar fine may sound substantial but Teck is a company with over $40 billion in assets and more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue. That fine is equivalent to $72 to a person holding $50,000 in assets.
In 2023, Teck was fined another $16 million for polluting waterways that flow from southeast BC into the USA.
In November 2023, Teck announced sale of its coal business at the implied enterprise value of C$12.3 billion. I guess C$76 million in penalties for releasing dangerous heavy metals and other noxious contaminants is a tiny drop in a bucket of polluted water.
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Categories: Environment
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Today’s Neo-Liberal business ethos pollute, poison, destroy, then take the money and run.
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So, the multi-decade per cent changes of selenium in the Elk River were the largest ever recorded in a peer-reviewed study — anywhere.
Tribal federations in the affected watershed and U.S. politicians at the highest levels are very concerned and engaged about the issues and it is certain that their efforts to solve the problem will escalate internationally.
The BC government takes issue mainly with the parts of the study report that indicates BC has knowledge gaps and a lack of understanding of the problem, not with the technical aspects. In other words don’t anyone dare say we don’t know how bad the problem is, no matter how bad.
Teck says everything is under control, no harm is being done to aquatic life, and by the way we’re selling the mines to offshore interests who promise to keep doing what we’ve been doing.
The Official Opposition party elected to BC’s Legislature with a duty to hold the government to account says, “Hunh?”. Understandable perhaps, because it’s busy undermining what meagre efforts the government is doing to combat climate change. There’s only so many hours in a day, after all.
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Teck is been sold off to foreign entities.
The Pulp Mill at Port Alice was sold off to foreign entities and when it closed the clean up is being paid for by the Provincial Government!
And so it goes on , perhaps the tarsands will eventually fall to this corruption?
TB
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