Canada takes 9 years to fine Teck for contaminating waterways. Will Teck Pay? Given Teck’s history, unlikely. Is this just another pretend to regulate to make Albertans stop protesting coal mining in the Eastern Slopes? Lars Sander-Green: “What Teck and other mining companies have learned is not to worry about Environment Canada”

Failure to pay: $1.3B in fines dating back decades owed to provinces and territories, Hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for provincial offences go uncollected, sometimes for decades by Aaron Saltzman, Matthew Pierce, Albert Leung, CBC News, Mar 11, 2021

Mining giant’s historic penalty prompts environmentalists to call for stricter coal-mining rules by Mike Hager with files from The Canadian Press, March 28, 2021, The Globe and Mail

A $60-million penalty to Teck Coal underscores the urgent need for B.C. to adopt stricter coal-mining regulations in line with American states downstream of the same valley where four large projects have been proposed, according to the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre and a binational coalition of environmental groups.

Last Friday, a Federal Court judge approved the largest Fisheries Act penalty ever Yet incredibly puny. If Teck were to pay it, the company wouldn’t even notice. Just a bit of the old “cost of doing business” for the subsidiary of Teck Resources after the mining giant put forward a joint submission with Environment and Climate Change Canada stating it contaminated waterways in southeastern B.C.’s Elk Valley with selenium – a natural element that washes out of piles of waste rock and moves up the food chain to cause deformities in fish and ruin their ability to reproduce.

The judge commended Teck as a good corporate citizen for spending $1-billion since the pollution was first uncovered by federal inspectors in 2012 and for co-operating to avoid a costly court case that would likely become the longest environmental lawsuit in Canadian history.

Company president and chief executive officer Don Lindsay released an open letter apologizing for the impacts on the region and Teck has agreed, under the deal, to remove selenium before it reaches the Fording River and enact a host of other environmental safeguards. He said the company plans to invest up to $655-million over the next four years on this monitoring and mitigation plan, which he said is the largest and most complex in the world.

But the transnational mining corporation headquartered in Vancouver is applying to extend the life of one of its coal mines, and there are three other coal projects proposed in the Elk Valley led by a collection of companies with Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Chinese backing.

Calvin Sandborn, a part-time law professor at the University of Victoria and legal director of its public interest environmental law clinic, said the fact it took nearly a decade for the pollution to be penalized by the federal government – not B.C. – shows successive governments have failed to protect the Rocky Mountains watershed near Fernie.

“I have no argument with Teck, they’re trying to make money for their shareholders – that’s what companies do,” said Mr. Sandborn, whose non-profit society provides pro bono work for First Nations and grassroots community groups.

Mr. Sandborn said recent studies show the westslope cutthroat trout of the nearby upper Fording River appear to be on the brink of extirpation. Teck spokesperson Chris Stannell says an investigation into what happened is still ongoing, but preliminary findings indicate water quality, including selenium, is not “a primary contributor to the decline.”

Mr. Sandborn says new coal mining in the region will add pollution to the Elk Valley watershed already battered by decades of coal mining operations that are still leaching selenium downstream and hundreds of kilometres into the United States. Existing water treatment plants are only tackling a portion of the total selenium entering the watershed, Mr. Sandborn estimated.

In February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved Montana’s new standard for selenium levels of 0.8 parts per billion or lower in Lake Koocanusa, a long lake that straddles its border with B.C. and is downstream from the Elk Valley. Currently, B.C. recommends selenium not exceed two parts per billion, but the government says it is still working with local First Nations and “is in the process of selecting a selenium water quality objective” for the shared lake.

Lars Sander-Green of Wildsight, an environmental group from B.C.’s Kootenays, said most of the water that flows through the mines is untreated and passes through old piles of waste rock that aren’t part of Teck’s new water treatment system. Until there is a comprehensive solution to this pollution, his charity is calling for a moratorium on new mining projects in the valley, which is also a core goal of its coalition with other Canadian groups such as the Sierra Club of BC, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society of BC and counterparts across the border, the Idaho Conservation League and the U.S. National Parks Conservation Association.

Both Mr. Sandborn and Mr. Sander-Green said B.C. must adopt and enforce tougher limits on selenium levels in the watershed to unify this standard with Montana.

Bruce Ralston, provincial Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, was unavailable for an interview Friday afternoon. A spokesperson for his ministry sent a statement Saturday saying B.C. has improved its mining oversight substantially since a 2016 Auditor-General’s report found serious gaps in oversight and enforcement. The province amended its laws last summer to buttress enforcement and has also created an investigative unit within the mines ministry that has led to the first successful prosecutions in two decades.

The statement also mentioned that B.C. is working to How many more decades will that take? I expect the “work” will go on forever, intentionally, so that Teck and other companies can pollute as they please, and pay the odd fine for PR purposes. And, I think AER and Alberta politicians will never mandate that new or current coal mines are bonded to intentionally hand taxpayers with clean up as AER and gov’ts have done and continue to do with oil and gas ensure owners of large industrial projects are bonded so that the province doesn’t pay the full costs of environmental cleanup if they are abandoned.

Bill Bennett, a former provincial cabinet minister who long handled mining before retiring from politics in 2017, said the former Liberal government’s approach to this pollution problem was to work with the mining companies to keep the projects viable while searching for solutions, rather than closing operations.

Michael Goehring, president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia, said his industry only began to identify and understand the devastating impact selenium can have on the environment a decade ago. The pollution is a significant and complex challenge in the Elk Valley with no silver bullet, but Teck and other companies intent on mining there now know they must plan mines to reduce selenium during their operations and treat waste water to cleanse it of this element.

“The solution is in play and so, today, really what’s happened is the legal process catching up,” he said Friday. Nice words, but not words of reality. The legal process in Canada, along with our cowardly tardy inconsistent regulators, is a big part of the enabling pollution problem, notably with corporate name changes and bankruptcies to hang tax payers with clean up.

A few of the comments to the CBC article:

Mike Webster:

Companies that commit environmental offenses should be fined; their executives jailed. Why should the rich be allowed to download the health and other costs of their pollution onto ordinary people – while the rich depart to enjoy their mansions and cruises?

Brian Dufoe:

light penalty for that kind of destruction,
jail time is more suitable.

Jed Brown:

Fines? How about arrests?

Katie Sampson:

This is great news! Teck is a despicable company and deserves this and many more fines. They should be shut down, the towns in the elk valley promote outdoor living…who wants to be outdoors when all you’re breathing is coal dust. They have contractors pressure washing houses to get rid of the dust but it’s in the air. Driving east or west towards sparwood all you see is a big dark dust cloud. Most of their higher paid “staff” don’t even live there (in the valley). How do I know? I lived there until teck took over

Wesley Deptuch:

I hope they actually pay the fine! There was an article recently that suggested a lot of fines never get paid. It’s just a game, a con. The intent is to make the gullible think responsible regulation is happening. I think this fine only happened because Kenney and Harper are letting Australia coal billionaires destroy the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies, likely to release much worse pollution than Teck Ever did. Governments need to ensure there is follow-up!

Norm Bethune:

Teck also owns Highland Valley Copper near Logan Lake. They have destroyed a whole valley for their toxic tailings. It can easily be seen from the space station.

Richard Thompson:

UCP open your eyes. This is what Jason Kenney wants to allow foreign mining companies to do to what are now pristine water sources in the Eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. This is utter madness , ruining the foothills for pennies on the dollar to enrich foreigners.

Tana Macnab:

Until people understand that no amount of money can replace the value of a mountain, clean water, and unpolluted air, companies like Teck, and the others who have bought up the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies in Alberta, will continue to rape the land and poison the environment. No short-term job or slight bump in the economy from these mines is worth the price we all pay. Mountains are not a renewable resource. Once the streams are destroyed – there is no coming back from that. And the companies that inflict that damage are long gone when they have what they want – no government fine is going to force them to look after the environment they have destroyed.

Eric Jensen:

Teck in its various corporate guises has been polluting southeastern BC for over a century. Even if this fine was $60 *Billion* it wouldn’t come close to covering the environmental damage they’re responsible for.

Kenan Sungur:

Jail time plus seize all Teck assets. That would be appropriate. 60mil is just a small tax on these companies.

Many Toban:

this fine is just a cost of doing business for a company the counts the Chinese government amongst ownership and whose annual revenues was 9 billion last year. the fine represents .6 percent of 2019 revenues. they are laughing at the country for being so spineless while they destroy SE BC.

Jay Sutter:

Just remember Teck will be a large corporate sponsor of our Olympic athlete’s in the upcoming games. Do you honestly believe they have individual candians interest’s at heart? Ask anyone that works at highland valley how they treat employees

Naomi Forbes:

Reply to @Jay Sutter: …thanks for telling us that. I will be sure not to watch the Olympics. It’s as bad as Walmart and Costco selling beef from the Amazon! These Corporations run the world and are also destroying it! We, the consumers need to be more aware of their unethical behaviour for the sake of our children.

Laurel C B Stranaghan:

Reply to @Jay Sutter: Thanks. What Naomi Forbes said.

Stan Johnston:

Reply to @Naomi Forbes: I’ll gladly second, third, fourth that.

The 1% rape the planet and abscond to Mars. Wash, rinse, repeat. Depressing.

Gary McGary:

Reply to @Stan Johnston: If they want to go live on Mars I say good riddance.

Dave Panofsky:

What a farce of a ruling. Environment Canada has really stepped up and showed it has no teeth. Par for the course. 60million in fines vs billions made in revenue last year. Probably a really bad analogy but it sounds like a fine the NHL hands down to a millionaire who just took someone’s head off. The point at the end of the article was a good one. What happens to the clean up efforts when Teck decides to leave the site. Does it become just like all those orphan wells?

Ian Hamilton:

Good luck trying to collect it…now real reporting would be following up this story and see when or indeed if the fines are ever paid IMHO

***

Coal company Teck fined $60M for contaminating rivers in southeastern B.C., Fine for polluting Elk and Fording rivers in 2012 is largest ever under federal Fisheries Act by Bob Weber, The Canadian Press, Mar 26, 2021, CBC News

A Canadian coal-mining company faces the largest fine imposed under the Fisheries Act after pleading guilty I’d like to know what came with the deal to plead guilty – perhaps $100 Million in gifts/grants from us to Teck in the future? Licence to keep freely polluting and killing fish for another decade? All in cahoots with Kenney, UCP and the Australian coal companies to make Albertans stop yelling NO! to strip mining the world famous Eastern Slopes? to contaminating waterways in southeastern British Columbia.

Teck Coal, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, is to pay $60 million after a judge on Friday agreed to a joint submission from Environment Canada and the company.

“Teck did not exercise all due diligence to prevent the deposit of coal mine waste rock leachate into the Fording River from settling ponds,” federal prosecutor Alexander Clarkson, reading from an agreed statement of facts, said in B.C. provincial court.

Coal has been mined in B.C.’s Elk Valley for decades. Teck Coal purchased the mines in 2008.

By then, court heard, there was already 2.2 billion cubic metres of associated waste rock in piles as high as 100 metres.

The rocks leach selenium and calcite.

Essential to life in small doses, the element selenium in large amounts can cause fish deformities and reproductive failures. Calcite is a mineral that destroys the habitat that trout need to reproduce by coating stream bottoms.

Prior to 2009, Teck Coal was aware selenium and calcite could be environmentally harmful,” Clarkson said. “Teck Coal did not have a comprehensive plan to address the deposit of coal mine waste.”

Environment Canada investigators found in 2012 that selenium concentrations were as high as 90 micrograms per litre in the Fording River and up to 177 micrograms in settling ponds at the mines. Both figures are many times higher than levels considered to be safe for river ecosystems.

Upstream of the mines, selenium concentrations were about one microgram per litre.

‘The result is an alienation of our people’

In 2020, investigators concluded Teck hadn’t done enough to fix the problem and issued charges in October.

The Fording River and other streams in the area are home to westslope cutthroat trout, a native species considered endangered. By 2020, Teck’s own research showed those fish populations had almost collapsed.

Vickie Thomas of the local Ktunaxa First Nation said her people continue to use and value the area. But the contamination has taken a toll.

“Knowing that fish habitat is impacted by these polluted waters leads to concern for the safety of all the fish as well as for Ktunaxa,” she said in court. “The result is an alienation of our people from our lands and waters.

“Fish and fish habitat are critical to the maintenance of Ktunaxa rights. The ability to drink confidently from a mountain stream is an aspect of Ktunaxa rights that all future generations should enjoy.”

Teck Coal told court it has spent nearly $1 billion since 2011 in an effort to bring selenium under control and plans another $655 million in spending over the next four years.

It said it has expanded and upgraded water treatment facilities that can handle up to 20 million litres of water a day and remove 95 per cent of the selenium.

“To the Ktunaxa First Nation … and to our communities in the Elk Valley, we deeply regret these impacts and we apologize,” said an open letter from Teck Resources president Don Lindsay.

“You have my commitment that we will not waver in our focus on addressing this challenge and working to ensure that the environment is protected.”

‘The problem’s getting worse’

Almost all of the fine, $58 million, is to go to the federal Environmental Damages Fund to support projects that benefit the environment. Which gives Teck big PR buying power to make the company look good, while it continues to pollute. The remaining $2 million is to go to general revenues.

Teck Coal must also remove selenium before it reaches the Fording River and follow requirements on water diversions, mine planning, fish monitoring and calcite prevention.

Lars Sanders-Green of Wildsight, an environmental group that has been following the issue, pointed out that Teck Coal has taken billions of dollars out of the Elk Valley.

“What Teck and other mining companies have learned is not to worry about Environment Canada,” he said. “This is a problem that’s been known since 1995. Now it’s 2021 and the problem’s getting worse.”

Sanders-Green said most of the water that flows through the mines is untreated and passes through old piles of waste rock that aren’t part of the new system. He noted that Americans are growing increasingly impatient with Canadian regulators allowing selenium to enter water that flows into the United States.

Sander-Green wonders what will happen when coal mining ends.

“We’re putting a Band-Aid over it with water treatment. If Teck’s spending a lot of money every year to operate a water treatment plant, there’s no way they’re going to continue doing that once the coal’s gone.”

A few of the comments to the Globe and Mail article:

whengoodmendonothing:

Well that portrays Tech in a negative light.

On to Alberta?

Bruce6012:

Hope the UPC Alberta government pays attention to this. Pffft! Kenney and the UCP don’t care about industrial pollution harming fish, water, wildlife, ranchers, farmers, environment, us. They care about their corporate rape & pillage friends, how to launder more of our tax dollars to them and how to get re-elected. They care about themselves, their egos and power. They see our environment, water and public health as items for the rich to make money on.

app_69680838:

Failure to pay: $1.3B in fines dating back decades owed to provinces and territories, Hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for provincial offences go uncollected, sometimes for decades

Aaron Saltzman, Matthew Pierce, Albert Leung · CBC News · Posted: Mar 11, 2021 ….

Updated article:

Teck Coal fined $60-million for contaminating waterways in southern B.C. by The Canadian Press, March 26, 2021, The Globe and Mail

A Canadian coal-mining company faces the largest fine imposed under the Fisheries Act after pleading guilty to contaminating waterways in southeastern British Columbia.

Teck Coal, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, is to pay $60 million after a judge on Friday agreed to a joint submission from Environment Canada and the company.

“Teck did not exercise all due diligence to prevent the deposit of coal mine waste rock leachate into the Fording River from settling ponds,” federal prosecutor Alexander Clarkson, reading from an agreed statement of facts, said in B.C. provincial court.

Coal has been mined in B.C.’s Elk Valley for decades. Teck Coal purchased the mines in 2008.

By then, court heard, there was already 2.2 billion cubic metres of associated waste rock in piles as high as 100 metres.

The rocks leach selenium and calcite.

Essential to life in small doses, the element selenium in large amounts can cause fish deformities and reproductive failures. Calcite is a mineral that destroys the habitat that trout need to reproduce by coating stream bottoms.

“Prior to 2009, Teck Coal was aware selenium and calcite could be environmentally harmful,” Clarkson said. “Teck Coal did not have a comprehensive plan to address the deposit of coal mine waste.”

A few more of the comments:

D_Knight:

Well, $60,000,000 might have got Teck’s attention but as I recall it took a complaint from way downstream in the US before things actually started to happen. Add to this that it was being written up as a disaster in 2014:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/elk-valley-watershed-why-has-this-unfolding-disaster-largely-been-ignored/article21158283/

Yet only now are fines being assessed.

Oh, the method being used to mine the coal? Same as are being proposed for Alberta. And as pointed out in the 2014 Globe article, selenium in not like an oil spill, it is clear, tasteless and colourless.

Or in the words of Dr Lemly the consultant involved.

”How bad does it have to get? Unfortunately, you have to have the ecological equivalent of a nuclear meltdown for people to stop and say, ‘Wait a minute. We are doing more harm than good,'” he said, commenting on a situation in Idaho, where a chronic selenium problem only caused alarm after trout were found with two heads.”

And Alberta has been closing monitoring stations……

ABCforever:

$60 million is no where near enough.

Original article:

Teck Coal fined $60-million for contaminating waterways in southern B.C. by The Canadian Press, March 26, 2021, The Globe and Mail

Teck Coal has been assessed $60-million in fines for contaminating waterways in southern British Columbia.

“It’s the largest-ever penalty assessed under the Fisheries Act,” federal prosecutor Alexander Clarkson told court in Fernie, B.C., on Friday.

Teck Coal, a subsidiary of Teck Resources Ltd., pleaded guilty to two charges of releasing selenium and calcite into the Elk and Fording rivers between January and December, 2012. Mr. Clarkson said the fines break down to $80,000 a day for each offence.

Selenium is a contaminant common to coal mines. Essential to life in small doses, it can cause fish deformities and reproductive failures in large amounts.

Calcite is a mineral that coats stream bottoms, destroying the habitat that trout need to reproduce.

Mr. Clarkson, reading from an agreed statement of facts, said Teck failed to maintain a settling pond for waste material, which allowed contaminated water to mix into the rivers, home to westslope cutthroat trout, a native species considered endangered.

By 2020, Teck’s own research showed fish populations had almost collapsed.

The company has since invested heavily in treating selenium and wastewater. Way too late, and Teck’s “treatment” is failing to fix the company’s toxic pollution.

Vickie Thomas of the local Ktunaxa First Nation says the contamination has had significant effects on her people.

“Knowing that fish habitat is impacted by these polluted waters leads to concern for the safety of all the fish as well as for Ktunaxa. The result is an alienation of our people from our lands and waters.”

Refer also to:

Nothing baffling about Teck’s river-polluting corporate practices

Teck does only smart thing possible given the pathetic economics and investors globally rejecting fossil fuels; Withdraws Frontier Tarshit project. Excellent, now Teck can clean up its toxic pollution in BC and heed court orders against the company. I expect it will just keep refusing and Canadian authorities will enable the refusals, as usual.

In “clean” Canada you say? Teck’s new profit-sucking, “let it dry,” wait for rain – lots of it, dust suppression toxic waste dumping technique?

Why is Alberta continuing to licence costly headaches to known big brute polluters and law violators such as Teck?

Synergizing Canadian Courts Enabling Polluters: BC Judge gives Painted Pony Energy PR gift (makes the company look good by “giving” to NGOs) instead of ordering real punishment for killing migratory birds in frac fluid tank

Another Settle & Gag to Keep Details Under Alberta’s Toxic Rug? Prairie Mines & Royalty (previously Obed) Fined $4.5 Million For Spilling Toxic Waste, Contaminating Athabasca River; Encana Fined Nothing for Breaking the Law, Fracturing, Contaminating Rosebud’s Drinking Water Aquifers

2014 02 28: Alberta regulator never inspected berm that burst at Obed mine toxic tailings pond, resulting in largest coal slurry spill in Canada

Court hearing today: CNRL to pay $500,000 for breaking the law ($425,000 to be given to U of C, how’s that for Synergy Alberta control?). Encana gets fined nothing for breaking the law frac’ing Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers; regulators get fined nothing for fraudulently covering up for Encana

“I’m actually outraged.” With Alberta Court’s blessings, Energy giant CNRL derails full public inquiry into foreign workers’ deaths

Teck will continue to fight U.S. judgement even though U.S. Supreme Court denied hearing Teck’s appeal

U.S. judge orders Teck Resources to pay aboriginal group $8.25-million

Confederated Tribes of Colville Reservation Can Seek $9.2 Million in litigation fees and costs for their claim against Canadian Mining Company Teck for dumping pollutants into Columbia River

Teck Metals fined $3.4-million for polluting B.C.’s Columbia River; Encana fined $0.0 for illegally fracing Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers

Teck Resources confirms spilling 25,000 liters of caustic soda into Columbia River in B.C.

Teck to appeal Washington river cleanup ruling

Teck liable for Columbia River clean-up in Washington state, judge rules

Teck Resources Admits Polluting Columbia River For 100 Years; Damage To Be Assessed

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