Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 7.20.16

NEWS
FEATURE
Koocanusa Concentrations Exceed New Selenium Standard EPA guidelines for contaminants will require site-speci c plan for transboundary reservoir due to mining e ects
Lake Koocanusa. BEACON FILE PHOTO
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
A new national regulatory standard for a pollutant called selenium sets forth criteria for how to manage a mining con- taminant currently spilling from the upstream waterways of British Colum- bia into Lake Koocanusa, where in some cases it already exceeds the threshold.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new criteria on selenium limits in freshwater sources revises a 17-year- old standard, and gives individual states the option of either adopting the recom- mendations or drafting their own rules.
On Lake Koocanusa, scientists and researchers from a multitude of agen- cies are in the process of developing a site-speci c plan as they continue to monitor the in ux of selenium leaching out of upstream Canadian coal mines located on the Elk River, which rushes into the Kootenay River and converges in Lake Koocanusa.
Selenium is a naturally occurring ele- ment in sedimentary rocks and coal and can be toxic to sh at elevated levels, which are exacerbated by mining opera- tions and the accumulation of waste rock, according to the EPA.
Jason Gildea, a hydrologist with the state’s EPA o ce, said new science gath- ered through the years prompted the agency to revise its old selenium stan- dards, which allowed water concentra- tions of 5 micrograms per liter, much higher than the Canadian standard of 2 micrograms per liter, which is again higher than the new standard of 1.5 micrograms per liter.
“We realized based on new ndings and new selenium research that the old levels were too high,” Gildea said.
But the selenium levels in Koocanusa are already bumping up against and exceeding the new levels, while the sele- nium levels in the Elk River directly below the mines far exceed them, reach- ing 70 micrograms per liter in some places with a rough average of 45 micro- grams per liter.
Based on muscle-tissue samples col- lected between 2008 and 2013 from seven species of sh in Lake Koocanusa, researchers have shown increasing trends in elevated selenium levels; more- over, the inrush of selenium won’t abate even if the mining operations shut down production, such is the scope of the foot- print and the size of waste-rock piles.
“We have had samples that exceed the new criteria, and there are others that are approaching that value,” said Trevor Selch, a water pollution biologist for Mon- tana Fish, Wildlife and Parks who is con- ducting muscle-tissue sampling on Lake Koocanusa. “But bumping up against that number doesn’t necessarily present an immediate point of concern for the sh species.”
However, given that in a ve-year period between 2008 and 2013 Selch tracked increases of selenium in mus- cle-tissue concentrations at rates of between 21 and 70 percent, “that is pretty alarming.”
“If we continue on that kind of tra- jectory, that is pretty serious,” he said. “Then we would de nitely be approach- ing a point of concern for the species.”
Research shows that toxic pollutants like selenium can impact sh species’ skeletal structure, reproductive abilities and liver and muscle tissues.
Ric Hauer, a University of Montana professor of limnology, has been study- ing the transboundary water system for four decades, and said the issues brewing on the Elk River have the potential to be “a multi-millennial problem.”
“There is a whole-scale, ecosys- tem-level degradation taking place on the Elk River and this entire watershed is being poisoned by selenium,” he said. “It will persist for tens of generations. This is not something that 50 years from now we can simply clean up and wipe our hands from.”
There are currently ve coal mines in the Elk River Valley causing toxic pollu- tion, all of which have launched expan- sion proposals that are in the explora- tion, permitting or development stage. Operated by Teck Resources Limited, the world’s second-largest exporter of metal- lurgical coal, the mines produce approx- imately 70 percent of Canada’s total annual coal exports and directly employ more than 4,500 full-time workers.
In May, the British Columbia Auditor
General released a two-year audit chas- tising provincial mine regulators for “a decade of neglect in compliance and enforcement,” highlighting the coal mines above Lake Koocanusa as partic- ularly egregious examples.
“We found almost every one of our expectations for a robust compliance and enforcement program within the (Minis- try of Energy and Mines) and the (Minis- try of Environment) were not met,” B.C. Auditor General Carol Bellringer wrote in the introduction to the report.
Bellringer wrote that if the B.C. Min- istry of Environment can’t properly enforce selenium regulations, it risks vio- lating a 1909 treaty between the United States and Canada forbidding pollution of transboundary water bodies. She stated the ministry’s planned water treatment plants put an onus on the provincial government “to monitor these facilities in perpetuity and ensure that they are maintained” at taxpayers’ expense.
In 2013, the B.C. government ordered Teck to address the issue of contaminants in the Elk River drainage, resulting in the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan and Tech- nical Advisory Committee. The commit- tee was composed of leading scientists from provincial, state and both Canadian and U.S. federal governments, along with Teck’s sta and contractors. Representa- tives of the Ktunaxa Nation were also at the forefront of the committee.
All ve Teck mines are open-pit, truck- and-shovel mines. As part of its water quality plan, Teck committed to opening six water treatment plants, including a $120 million treatment plant called the
“WE HAVE HAD SAMPLES THAT EXCEED THE NEW CRITERIA, AND THERE ARE OTHERS THAT ARE APPROACHING THAT VALUE.”
- TREVOR SELCH, MONTANA FISH, WILDLIFE AND PARKS
West Line Creek Water Treatment Facil- ity, to remove selenium and other con- taminants from Line Creek.
But Hauer was skeptical that a com- pany like Teck can commit to the kind of long-term treatment necessary to repair a century-long legacy of mining damage on the Elk.
“This will go on for thousands of years, not the estimated 50-year life expectancy of the mines,” Hauer said. “So what hap- pens when the mines close? How can they continue a water treatment process cost- ing cost hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain? There is not a company on the planet that can sustain something like that.”
“This will continue to bleed and bleed until the bleeding is stopped,” Hauer continued. “Right now the idea is to put a bandage over it and try to reduce the amount of bleeding. But as soon as you rip the bandage o and don’t maintain it anymore, then the bleeding is just going to continue.”
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JULY 20, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM