The Kootenai River, an international watershed encompassing 18,000 square miles of British Columbia, Montana and Idaho, was named among the nation’s most endangered waterways by a Washington, D.C.-based environmental group.
American Rivers put the Kootenai on its top-10 list because the river faces threats from five open-pit coal mines along one of its major tributaries in southeastern British Columbia, the heavily mined Elk River, which joins the Kootenai River at Lake Koocanusa.
Runoff from the mines is causing alarming levels of selenium contamination in the Elk, according to a recent University of Montana study, and the system’s water quality and the suite of rare fish and wildlife the watershed supports are threatened by the ongoing mining operations, as well as multiple new proposed mines and expansions.
American Rivers and other conservation groups, as well as business owners who depend on the Kootenai, are calling on the U.S. State Department and the International Joint Commission to halt the coal mine expansions until an independent study is completed to determine the cumulative impacts of the mines on water quality, fish and wildlife.
“As a fly-fishing guide, the health of my business literally relies on the health of the Kootenai River,” said Tim Linehan, a fishing and hunting outfitter on the Kootenai River. “This is pretty simple. Rivers don’t stop flowing because of international borders. If we’re starting to see problems in the headwaters, in this case the Canadian side of the drainage, it’s critically important to take immediate action to prevent those problems from moving downstream as well.”
The UM study, which was commissioned by Glacier National Park and carried out by Ric Hauer, a professor of limnology, and Erin Sexton, a research scientist, both at UM’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, confirmed that runoff from the mines has raised selenium levels in the Elk River to more than 10 times what has been observed in the nearby Flathead River, which is not affected by coal mining.
Selenium is a naturally occurring, metal-like element that becomes toxic to fish and wildlife when released at unnaturally high levels.
“Selenium pollution in the Kootenai River is an escalating problem,” said Dave Hadden, director of Headwaters Montana. “The International Joint Commission successfully resolved the treatment of mountaintop removal coal mining in the neighboring Flathead River system. We think the IJC is the appropriate place to discuss and resolve selenium pollution originating in British Columbia.”
Days after the UM study was released, the B.C. Ministry of Environment announced a moratorium on new coal mines until the selenium pollution is controlled. Several weeks later, a British Columbia conservation group called Outdoor Recreation Council listed the Elk River, a world-class fishery, as one of the top three most endangered rivers in the province.
Chris Stannell, a spokesman for Teck Coal Ltd., which operates the five coal mines in the Elk Valley, said a water quality management program is in place, and Teck is constructing a water treatment plant at its Line Creek operation.
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On Monday, The Globe and Mail reported that the British Columbia government has issued a ministerial order to Teck Coal requiring the company to submit a plan for dealing with the high levels of selenium and other contaminants in the Elk Valley watershed.
The order, which the company called “a constructive way to move forward,” according to The Globe and Mail, covers both the Elk and Fording rivers and Lake Koocanusa, the international reservoir that stretches across the U.S. border.
High selenium levels also have been recorded in Lake Koocanusa, a dammed section of the Kootenai River on the U.S.-Canada border, which has been listed as an impaired water body under the U.S. Clean Water Act, raising concerns about the impact on cutthroat trout, bull trout and aquatic insects, as well as wildlife like woodland caribou and grizzly bear.
Teck Coal’s own data show that it has exceeded British Columbia’s selenium standard since 2006, with levels steadily increasing and detectable in Montana and Idaho. Selenium bioaccumulates in the environment, meaning its impact multiplies as it moves through the food chain, and elevated levels of the pollutant already have been detected in Kootenai River fish.
“The waters of the Kootenai River flow constantly across the border from British Columbia to Montana, and unfortunately so do the mine pollutants,” said Michael Jamison, Glacier Program Manager with the National Parks Conservation Association. “This is an international problem that will require an international solution, much like the IJC provided so successfully for the transboundary Flathead River system. What’s needed today is a moratorium on Canadian mine expansions until we can gather baseline data and establish a long-term mitigation plan. As downstream residents, we obviously have a very keen interest in what our upstream neighbors are sending our way.”
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