Montana Tribes Help Shape International Response to Mining Pollution in Elk-Kootenai Watershed

Tribal leaders on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border say the completion of a plan to study the effects of Canadian coal mining operations, which are degrading water quality in British Columbia (B.C.), Montana and Idaho, is an encouraging milestone in their quest to protect the transboundary watershed, particularly given the unprecedented degree of input from stewards of Indigenous culture.

For decades, open-pit coal mines located in the Elk Valley of southeast British Columbia (B.C.) have leached selenium, nitrate, and sulphate into the Elk and Kootenai rivers. Since 2012, Indigenous governments and tribal councils have been urging Canada and the U.S. to address the water quality crisis through an independent, federal-led examination of the mining operations, mounting a united front to insist that any plan to address pollution in the international watershed must include a reference to the International Joint Commission (IJC), as well as tribal involvement. In March 2024, federal governments in Canada and the U.S. agreed to a joint request for IJC intervention, signaling a breakthrough in bilateral talks that had stalled for years, even as the company that owns the mines expanded its footprint along the border with Montana.

The Elk-Kootenai reference is historic because it’s the first time in the IJC’s history that a trilateral reference has been called involving an Indigenous nation; in this case, the transboundary Ktunaxa Nation, which encompasses the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, and the six Ktunaxa bands of government.

The recent completion of a Final Plan of Study is a key step in the IJC directive to “conduct transparent and coordinated transboundary data and knowledge sharing” on the Elk-Kootenai watershed, where pollution along the U.S.-Canada border with Montana has galvanized state, federal and tribal governments as they call for more regulatory transparency and scrutiny on coal mines that have operated in B.C.’s Elk River Valley for more than a century. The IJC directive creates an International Elk-Kootenai Watershed Study Board (IEKWSB), which must provide the IJC with an interim report on its progress in September 2025 and a final report in September 2026. It also creates a Council of Indigenous Knowledge Holders, including tribal representatives from Montana, Idaho and B.C.

Leadership of the transboundary Ktunaxa Nation said in a prepared statement they welcome the release of the plan to address water pollution in the transboundary Elk-Kootenai watershed, which is written as “Kootenai/y” to acknowledge both the U.S. and Canadian spelling of the river, respectively.

“This marks an important and very positive milestone in the commitment made by the United States and Canada to work in partnership with the governments of the Ktunaxa Nation to address water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai/y watershed, and importantly, to work together to restore the health of the watershed, which has been heavily impacted by legacy and ongoing mining in the Elk Valley,” said CSKT Vice Chairman Tom McDonald.

The plan was developed by the Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed Study Board, an independent body, created by the IJC to study and make recommendations to address water pollution in the transboundary watershed. The study board is tasked with bringing together scientific experts and a council of Indigenous knowledge holders to share technical data and cultural values “in a coordinated, objective, and transparent process,” according to the plan. The 28-page plan outlines the scope of work that the study board will undertake over the next 12-18 months, culminating in a final report outlining the extent of the pollution in the watershed and providing recommendations to reduce and mitigate the impacts of the pollution.

“We welcome this long-awaited Plan of Study, and we support the Study Board’s efforts to produce the best-possible recommendations to reduce and mitigate the impacts of water pollution. Their study will inform decisions that will affect the future of ʔa·kxam̓is q̓api qapsin (All Living Things) for many generations. The scope of the Plan of Study reflects the importance of those decisions and the size of the challenges we all face to protect and care for the land and all things on it,” said Kootenai Tribe of Idaho Vice Chairman Gary Aitken Jr.

The Elk River rises in the Canadian Rockies and flows into the U.S. at Lake Koocanusa, an impoundment of the Kootenai River. It then flows through the states of Montana and Idaho, and through transboundary Ktunaxa lands, including those of the CSKT and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho on its way back to the province of B.C., where it empties into the Columbia River. 

Although open-pit coal mines located in the Elk Valley of southeast B.C. have leached contaminants into the watershed for decades, with growing evidence revealing that high concentrations of mining contaminants far exceed water quality standards and are degrading the watershed’s aquatic health.

In the U.S., Montana has taken steps to address the selenium problem by adopting its own site-specific water quality standard for selenium at the border, a protective value crafted through years of scientific work to safeguard fish species in Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River. The standard for dissolved selenium concentration is 0.8 micrograms per liter on Lake Koocanusa and 3.1 micrograms per liter on the Kootenai River. Idaho adopted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended selenium criteria in 2009.

In 2019, in response to elevated fish tissue levels of selenium, the transboundary Ktunaxa again raised concern regarding water quality and selenium impacts, requesting B.C. set a lower limit to protect aquatic life while a group of stakeholders, scientists and technical experts who were part of the Lake Koocanusa Monitoring and Research Working Group completed their work. The outcome of the work done by the working group resulted in Ktunaxa leadership in B.C. approving a site-specific selenium water quality objective of 0.85 micrograms per liter in the B.C. portion of Lake Koocanusa in September 2020.

As evidence of the compounding contamination issues, the U.S. Geological Survey in November 2023 published a report revealing that selenium and nitrates in the Elk River have increased by 581% and 784%, respectively, with unprecedented increases of the pollutants leaching into the watershed. The contaminant increases provide additional evidence of the regulatory failures of the mines, which for years were owned by Teck Resources; however, last July the Canadian government approved the Swiss mining company Glencore’s $6.93 billion acquisition of Teck’s coal operation, as well as its strategy to spinoff the mines into a company called Elk Valley Resources (EVR).

For the past 15 years, Rich Janssen, head of CSKT’s Natural Resources Division, has advocated on behalf of tribes and First Nations to stop the tide of coal mining pollutants spilling downstream from B.C.’s Elk River into Montana’s Kootenai River watershed. He said the inclusion of the Council of Indigenous Knowledge Holders, as well as language and cultural working groups, adds a critical cultural dimension to the process, and commended the Final Plan of Study for including background on the Ktnuxa’s creation story.

According to the directive, the study board will regularly consult with the Council of Indigenous Knowledge Holders “to ensure that knowledge relevant to the [IJC reference] is requested, shared, synthesized, analyzed, and fully considered.” A Council of Ksanka Ktunaxa Knowledge Holders has also been appointed by the IJC’s U.S. and Canadian secretaries.

“The areas at the center of the IJC directive have been traditionally and continue to be used by Indigenous people. We have a cultural connection that goes back millennia. It’s a generational connection and we want these ecosystems to continue to function,” Janssen said this week. “So it’s very important that our Indigenous people provide that input in this process to be sure that it will be part of final report that comes out.”

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the date when Idaho adopted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended selenium criteria in 2009. It also makes clear that Idaho’s selenium criteria for the Kootenai River is not site-specific.

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