US EPA sets lower Selenium levels for water coming from coal mining

[goldscud]

EPA wants lower Selenium levels in Koocanusa downstream of the Elk river coal mines. New mines coming on-line are only going to increase pollution. Looks like an international disagreement is looming.

https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-teck-coal-m...lenium-limits/

[Don Andersen]

CDN Govt limit @ 1 ppb. Alberta limit raised to 2 ppb.

Don

[goldscud]

Looks like BC limit is 2ppb as well.

Corporations just need to keep sending cheques to the political party in power so they don't drop the limit I guess.

[urban rednek]

Looks like they are making progress on this issue. According to this article, the US State Dept. and Global Affairs Canada have agreed to send a "joint reference" to the International Joint Commission (IJC) requesting action.

https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-7/poll...t-newtab-en-us

Excerpts

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 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.

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.

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 harms humans 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.

[britman101]

Mining companies like Teck Cominco have been doing this for years. Pollute the river system and valleys for the Columbia River and the Elk River system and pay the fines levied. Or make it sound like the company will. To mining companies this just a cost of doing business. Make billions of dollars in profits, and pay the fines that are levied. To them it is just a cost of doing business. And these penalties levied can be appealed. It just makes good news to share with the public. If big corporations took it seriously they would take more seriously the environmental inspections done at their sites. In BC from 2017 to 2023, 250 environmental inspections were done at mining sites, and these companies failed the inspections to the tune of 84 percent. Pay the fine, to them it is just part of the costs in turning a profit.