Indigenous leaders from Canada and the United States are intensifying their calls for an investigation into the toxic runoff from mining operations in British Columbia. These leaders recently attended meetings of the International Joint Commission in Washington, D.C., which oversees the treaty governing waters that straddle the Canada-U.S. border. Despite the promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden to reach an agreement by this summer to “reduce and mitigate” pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed, tribal and First Nations leaders remain unconvinced and are urging for more definitive action.

The Elk and Kootenay rivers, spelled Kootenai in the U.S., feed a watershed located within the transboundary Columbia River basin. This area has been the subject of ongoing treaty discussions since 2018. For more than a decade, communities in British Columbia, Washington state, Idaho, and Montana have been grappling with selenium and other toxins seeping into their watersheds from coal mining operations in the Elk Valley. The reluctance of the Canadian government to agree to an IJC investigation under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, also known as a joint reference, has frustrated and bewildered tribal leaders, Indigenous peoples, and environmentalists for years.

Although Teck Resources, the primary mining player in the region, has already spent more than $1.2 billion to address the issue, with plans to invest an additional $750 million over the next two years, Indigenous leaders remain deeply skeptical. They insist that toxicity levels still exceed acceptable levels. In response, the leaders are demanding that future mining projects undergo consultations with Indigenous groups and a moratorium on permits until a mechanism for consultation is established. They also call for a ban on upstream mine waste dams and tailings ponds and want the IJC to establish more international “watershed boards” comprising local stakeholders, Indigenous and tribal leaders as members, to monitor the transboundary impacts of mining operations.

As the IJC meetings took place, newly elected Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola called on the Biden administration to establish a watershed board for a series of rivers along the state’s southeastern border with B.C. to monitor “the potential impacts of widespread Canadian mineral exploration and development.” She is particularly concerned about shared wild salmon habitats. According to Salmon Beyond Borders, an Alaska-based conservation group, mining claims have already been staked along 90 percent of the B.C. side of one of the rivers, the Unuk. Peltola believes that the establishment of a watershed board is the best way to ensure that Alaskan communities and tribes downstream from potential and existing mining sites in B.C. can voice their concerns and participate in an equitable dialogue between the two nations.

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