Pollution knows no borders

A long-awaited agreement will address Canadian mine waste flowing downriver into Montana and Idaho.

When coal miners north of Fernie, British Columbia, blast into the mountains, the piles of rocks left behind leach selenium into the Elk River, which flows south into the Kootenai River. In small quantities, selenium is an essential nutrient, but larger amounts are toxic to humans and other species. The Kootenai’s levels are so high that some local tribal members are wary of fishing in Lake Koocanusa, a reservoir on the U.S.-Canada border. “People are very cautious about what they put in their bellies up there,” said Rich Janssen (Qlispe), head of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Natural Resources Department. Any selenium that doesn’t settle in the lake flows into Montana, then Idaho, then back into British Columbia.

For decades, downstream residents, advocates and members of the transboundary Ktunaxa Nation — six First Nations and tribes, including the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes — have urged mining company Teck Resources to address the problem.

In March, after years of delay, the U.S. State Department and Global Affairs Canada agreed to send a “joint reference” to the International Joint Commission (IJC) requesting action. The IJC will now convene the affected federal, tribal, state and provincial governments, review the scientific evidence and recommend nonbinding solutions.

The selenium in the Elk and Kootenai (Kootenay in Canada) watersheds illuminates the difficulty of protecting rivers along Canada’s boundary with Idaho, Washington and Alaska. States and tribes have little power to stop mining pollution at the border, and downstream residents suffer the consequences. “Trying to be a good neighbor, but trying to serve the economic interests of your own nation … sometimes they do conflict,” said Andrea Gerlak, a University of Arizona professor who studies transboundary waters. “Trying to reconcile the two is a perennial challenge.” 

“Trying to be a good neighbor, but trying to serve the economic interests of your own nation … sometimes they do conflict.”

THE COMMISSIONERS ON the International Joint Commission — three from each country are responsible for resolving water disputes between the U.S. and Canada. Though Article 4 of the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty states that “waters flowing across the boundary shall not be polluted on either side to the injury of health or property on the other,” the IJC hasn’t used a joint reference to address a pollution issue originating in British Columbia since the 1980s, when a proposed coal mine threatened fish in the North Fork of the Flathead River. The IJC recommended against permitting the mine, and a 2010 agreement between Montana and Canada banned mining and oil and gas development in the Canadian Flathead. 

The Flathead reference left officials worried. Canadian leaders refused to negotiate on the Elk River selenium issue for over a decade; documents obtained by The Narwhal, an online Canadian investigative magazine, show that British Columbia and Teck lobbied Canadian officials to reject further inquiry by the IJC.  

“I think government officials, particularly at the state and provincial level, look back at that and think, ‘If the IJC gets involved, it’s going to squash economic development,’” said Rob Sisson, an IJC commissioner from 2019 until this May. “The specter of the Flathead reference has haunted the parties in their use of the IJC for 40 years.” Protecting the Flathead has had an enormous political cost, agreed Heather Hardcastle of the Alaska-based group Salmon Beyond Borders, adding, “It feels like the other transboundary rivers have become sacrifice zones.” 

AS EVIDENCE OF MINING’S downstream impacts grew, so did calls for action. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, selenium concentrations in the Elk River have increased 551% (a mean of .89 to 5.77 micrograms per liter) since 1985 — perhaps unprecedented on a global scale, the scientists said. The study noted that concentrations regularly exceed water-quality standards on both sides of the border. 

“They call it the silent killer,” said Genny Hoyle, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s environment director. Selenium slowly builds up in the ovaries and eggs of the creatures that absorb it, affecting reproduction; young fish die before they can mature, while those that survive may never reproduce.

From 2008 to 2020, selenium levels in westslope cutthroat trout, peamouth chub and northern pikeminnow in Lake Koocanusa periodically exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s toxicity limits. Data collected farther downstream by the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho show that levels are rising in the eggs of Kootenai River white sturgeon, an endangered fish the tribe is working to restore. In mountain whitefish, selenium concentrations have reached nearly double the level considered to be “impaired.” Too much selenium also harmshumans when inhaled or ingested; the EPA requires that drinking water have no more than 50 parts per billion.

In 2022, The Narwhal reported selenium levels 267 times higher than considered safe for aquatic life were still being recorded near the mine. Teck has spent $1.4 billion to clean up its wastewater and plans to invest $150 million-$250 million more by the end of this year, a company spokesperson said, adding that its four water treatment facilities can treat 77.5 million liters of water per day. But there are some recent measurements by the provincial government show that the company is filtering less than half the river’s selenium.

Many credit the Ktunaxa Nation for maintaining pressure on both countries despite industry resistance. “We’ve been pushing it hard,” Janssen said. “I just think the money outweighed the pollution.” In April 2023, a dozen First Nations and tribes requested a joint reference on the Elk, Kootenai and other rivers, pointing out that both countries have a legal and ethical obligation to protect transboundary waters. “When you can’t drink the water, when you can’t eat the fish out of the water, you lose a part of yourself, a part of your culture,” Janssen said. 

REDUCING THE FLOW OF SELENIUM into Montana will take years, if not decades. “Just because the reference has happened does not mean that suddenly the water starts becoming cleaner,” said Erin Sexton, a senior scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station and a longtime advisor to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. A new report commissioned by Wildsight, a Canadian environmental group, estimates it will cost $6.4 billion and at least six decades of treatment to reduce concentrations to acceptable levels. (Teck disputes these figures.)

“When you can’t drink the water, when you can’t eat the fish out of the water, you lose a part of yourself, a part of your culture.”

The IJC is now assembling a group of government representatives, experts and knowledge holders to conduct a two-year study on water quality, with recommendations to follow. Both governments usually accept IJC’s nonbinding recommendations.

Advocates for other transboundary watersheds, including Alaska’s, are encouraged: “We have faith now that the Elk-Kootenai watershed has received a reference, now (the IJC) can pivot to our region,” Hardcastle said. British Columbia has more than 100 abandoned, active or proposed gold and copper mines that could contaminate Alaska’s rivers and kill salmon. Leaders ranging from the president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have called for proactive protection of Alaska’s watersheds. Meanwhile, Washington residents and tribes are concerned about a tailings dam expansion at the Copper Mountain Mine on the Similkameen River in Canada. 

Will the IJC act quickly? Or will the watersheds’ downstream residents, like those in the Elk Valley, have to endure decades of pollution first? “(The Boundary Waters Treaty) is great in concept,” Janssen said. “But if nobody enforces it, what’s the point?”

This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation.