Canada sitting on report on B.C. toxins in shared river: U.S.
U.S. officials are accusing its Canadian counterparts of sitting on damning new data about toxic chemicals from southern B.C. coal mines in water shared by both countries.
In a letter to the U.S. State Department, Americans on the International Joint Commission say Canadian members are blocking the release of information on contaminants that are many times above guideline levels.
“Canadian commissioners have not been willing to submit a report that addresses selenium pollution in transboundary waters of the Kootenai River drainage,” says the letter to the State Department’s director of Canadian affairs.
The commission was created in 1909 as a way to discuss water that crosses the U.S.-Canada border.
The B.C. dispute, brewing for decades, burst open in June when the commission’s two Canadian members refused to endorse a report on selenium in the Elk River watershed just north of the border.
Trace amounts of selenium are healthy, but large doses can lead to gastrointestinal disorders, nerve damage, cirrhosis of the liver and even death in humans. In fish, it causes reproductive failure.
The report documents increasing selenium in Canadian water flowing into the transboundary Koocanusa reservoir.
All five waterways in the report have selenium levels at the maximum or above B.C.’s drinking water guidelines. Two are four times higher.
The study says the level of selenium in the Elk and Fording rivers is 70 times that in the Flathead River, which doesn’t get run-off from five coal mines operated by Teck Resources.
In May, Teck reported selenium levels in Koocanusa exceeded both human health and aquatic life guidelines.
“High selenium concentrations are resulting in deformities and reproductive failure in trout and increasing fish mortality of up to 50 per cent in some portions of the Elk and Fording watersheds,” the letter says.
Things are getting worse, said Erin Sexton, a researcher at the University of Montana. Elk River stations near the mines are reporting levels 50 times what’s recommended for aquatic health. Near the city of Fernie, B.C., readings are 10 times that level.
“The levels of selenium in the Elk are astronomical,” said Sexton.
Commission spokesperson Sarah Lobrichon said the report is still being reviewed by commissioners on both sides.