Your message for the Kootenay

Make this form full page

To: Honourable Marc Garneau, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change
The Hon. Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan
cc: Evelyne Coulombe, Executive Director, U.S. Transboundary Affairs, Global Affairs Canada
Michael Flores, Deputy Director, Canada Desk & Elizabeth Christenson-Diver, Office of Canadian Affairs, Department of State
All six IJC Commissioners: Pierre Béland, Jane Corwin, Merrell-Ann Phare, Henry Lickers, Robert Sisson, Lance Yohe

Subject: *

If you’d like to write your own letter for maximum impact, we encourage you to do so in the box below. Or, simply send the pre-written letter.

Your message: *
Dear Ministers Garneau and Wilkinson, Secretary Blinken and EPA Administrator Regan, cc: Evelyne Coulombe, Executive Director, U.S. Transboundary Affairs, Global Affairs Canada Michael Flores, Deputy Director, Canada Desk and Elizabeth Christenson-Diver, Office of Canadian Affairs, Department of State IJC Commissioners Pierre Béland, Jane Corwin, Merrell-Ann Phare, Henry Lickers, Robert Sisson, Lance Yohe I’m writing today to request that Canada and the US agree to a reference to the International Joint Commission on the transboundary water pollution flowing from coal mines in the BC Rockies into the shared Elk-Kootenai watershed. It’s been known since the 1990s that selenium pollution from the massive waste rock dumps at the open-pit coal mines in BC’s Elk Valley puts fish downstream at risk. Since that time, BC and Canada have allowed the amount of selenium-leaching waste rock to increase significantly and they are currently considering four additional mines that would make the problem even worse. While some unproven water treatment options are removing a small amount of selenium at the mines, there is no long-term solution that will keep fish in our shared watershed safe for the centuries that pollution is expected to continue flowing. This means hundreds of kilometres of rivers and lakes, all the way from the mines through BC, Montana, and Idaho and back into BC, are at risk. Already, selenium pollution in the border-spanning Lake Koocanusa is well above the level that scientists tell us is safe, which is now a limit under US law. Downstream as far as Idaho, fish have been found with selenium built up in their bodies above EPA limits. Teck just received the largest environmental fine in Canadian history for water pollution in 2012 that put fish in danger downstream of two of the mines; nine years later, there’s even more pollution. This international problem requires an international solution. Please provide a reference to the International Joint Commission on this issue without delay. Our fish and clean water can’t afford to wait any longer while pollution-leaching waste rock dumps in the BC Rockies grow larger every day.

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

For Wildsight updates.

Street Address

City

Postal Code

State/Province

Country