Contamination of Elk Valley drinking water indicates spread of selenium pollution

In December 2023, the City of Fernie announced it would begin immediately exploring for a new secondary water supply, with workers operating seven days a week until Christmas Eve. In June 2024, it continued its investigations with pumping tests performed on a test well in a Fernie park.The city’

Wildsight
Lake Koocanusa

Their patience has run out . . .

When Rich Janssen flips through the 2023 calendar, he sees months of missed opportunities to tackle a multi-national environmental crisis that has united tribal and First Nation governments spanning the U.S.-Canada border as few causes have before.

Last year’s calendar isn’t much different. Neither is the year before that.

For decades, open-pit coal mines located in the Elk Valley of southeast British Columbia (B.C.) have leached selenium, nitrate, and sulphate into the Elk and Kootenai rivers. Since 2012, Indigenous leaders from the Ktunaxa Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) and the Kootenai Tribes of Idaho (KTOI) have been urging Canada and the U.S. to address the water quality crisis.

Continue reading . . .

https://www.gravel.org/2023/11/29/tribes-set-end-of-year-ultimatum-for-u-s-and-canada-to-address-transboundary-mining-crisis-in-elk-kootenai-drainage/

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