B.C. Coal Mining Company Charged with Illegal Dumping, Fisheries Act Violations in Transboundary Watershed

The Canadian government on July 10 laid five charges against Teck Coal Limited alleging the mining company with operations in British Columbia’s Elk River Valley committed Fisheries Act violations by leaching toxic contaminants into Dry Creek and the Fording River, a tributary of the Elk River that feeds Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River in Montana.

The charges, which prosecutors with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) laid against Teck by indictment — a charging decision that means the offense is “deemed more serious” — come less than a week after the Canadian government approved the Swiss mining company Glencore’s $6.93 billion acquisition of Teck Coal. In the months leading up to the purchase, environmental watchdog groups and federal regulators on both sides of the international border have raised concerns over whether appropriate reclamation securities are in place, and if the new owners will be held financially accountable for cleaning up the documented contamination in the Elk River and in downstream waterways.

Contaminated runoff from piles of waste rock at Teck’s five metallurgical coal mines in the Elk River Valley, which are now operated by a spinoff company called Elk Valley Resources (EVR), has caused elevated concentrations of the mining toxin selenium in waterways stretching from Fernie and Sparwood, B.C., to communities spanning the border in Montana and Idaho. Selenium concentrations from the mines consistently breach both B.C. and Montana water quality standards.

According to Amele Desmarais, a spokesperson for ECCC, the charges for violations of the Fisheries Act stem from an investigation that officers with the agency conducted in March 2023. According to a copy of the indictment filed in Fernie, B.C., the allegations occurred between Jan. 1, 2018 and Sept. 30, 2023.

“The investigation was conducted into alleged deleterious (harmful) deposits into Dry Creek on Teck Coal Limited’s Line Creek Operations Mine in British Columbia, and the adjacent Fording River,” according to Desmarais. “All charges are currently before the Court, and they have not yet been proven. Under Canadian law, those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, Environment and Climate Change Canada will not be commenting further at this time.”

Chris Stannell, a spokesperson for EVR, said Glencore’s recent purchase of Teck Coal and the newly spun-off EVR coal mining operations will not shift the corporate accountability for the alleged environmental infractions. 

“These charges were laid against the Elk Valley Resources business, which will be liable for any penalties payable, including following Glencore’s acquisition of a 77% interest,” Stannell wrote in an email.

The Canadian government on July 4 approved Glencore’s acquisition following strict conditions enforced under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) that ensure, among other things, “commitment to environmental preservation and stewardship of liabilities,” according to a July 4 ministerial statement from Canada. The ICA review requires Glencore to maintain its obligations under a $4.7 billion (USD) reclamation bond required by B.C. government regulators. 

A reclamation security is a financial assurance, often referred to as a bond, that mining companies must provide to the province to cover environmental reclamation and remediation costs in case of insolvency or emergency. It is designed to ensure the financial burden associated with clean-up costs falls on industry rather than taxpayers. 

“Notwithstanding these commitments, however, Glencore will, in addition, maintain responsibility for payment of any environmental obligations under Canadian law beyond those covered by the existing bond through 2050,” the ministerial order states. “This obligation would remain in place even in a scenario in which Glencore seeks to sell, demerge or otherwise dispose of EVR, unless the Minister is satisfied that the terms of sale suitably provided for environmental stewardship of the liabilities. In effect, Glencore‘s commitment will result in generational assurance of sound environmental stewardship of the asset, regardless of its future ownership, out to 2050.”

Glencore also committed to an additional $350 million investment in rehabilitation and closure activities over five years.

In northwest Montana, Glencore’s shuttered Columbia Falls Aluminum Company Plant was listed on the National Priority List and designated as a superfund site in 2016, meaning that long-term cleanup of a portion of the 2,400-acre site has been ordered. Estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has pegged the cleanup costs at between $624 million and $1.4 billion

Stannell, the EVR spokesperson, said the company “will not comment further on ongoing legal matters, but will honor the commitments made under the ICA.” He said EVR has made “significant progress in advancing the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan and will continue these efforts.”

Still, even as Teck invests hundreds of millions of dollars in new water-treatment technology, scientists say there isn’t any proven evidence to show the process is reversing or even stabilizing contamination trends at the U.S.-Canada border. Instead, the extent of the contamination in Montana and Idaho appears to be even more widespread, with new data revealing concentrations of selenium in fish tissue that is higher than previously thought.

The recent alleged Fisheries Act violations also do not signal the first time Teck has faced prosecution for releasing environmental contaminants into the transboundary watershed. In 2021, in what amounted to the largest sentence ever brought under the Canadian Fisheries Act for pollution violations, ECCC ordered Teck pay $60 million in fines for leaching toxic contaminants into downstream waterways, including Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River system, causing harmful impacts to native fish species on both sides of the international border. In that case, Teck executives pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully depositing deleterious substances into water frequented by fish.

Specifically, Teck executives admitted their operations on the Fording River, a tributary of the Elk River near Elkford, B.C., as well as at nearby Greenhills, caused the mining contaminants selenium and calcite to leach from spoils of waste rock and into downstream tributaries, having an adverse effect on native westslope cutthroat trout, including causing fish deformities and mortalities.

In 2017, the company was fined $1.4 million after a problem with its West Line Creek water treatment facility north of Sparwood, B.C., resulted in the death of dozens of westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout in 2014. Meanwhile, Teck has continued to move forward on an expansion of its mining complex on the Fording River, which is the subject of last week’s charges, as well as those laid in 2021.

Earlier this year, federal governments in Canada and the U.S. agreed to ask the International Joint Commission (IJC) to study and take steps to mitigate the inflow of mining pollution to the Elk-Kootenai River watershed through a joint reference, signaling a breakthrough in bilateral talks that have stalled for years.

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