Selenium concerns upriver as water testing continues

Wrangell's tribal government is continuing to cooperate with Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on its baseline water testing of the Stikine River.

Initiated in November by Central Council's Native Lands and Resources Department (NLRD), each month two technicians have headed upriver to collect water samples, testing them for their chemical and physical properties in order to establish average conditions. This information eventually may be used in the management of these rivers, by state and federal agencies, regulators in neighboring British Columbia, and the wider public.

The NLRD baseline testing was meant to measure major salmon-producing rivers in Southeast, identifying the Stikine, Unuk and Taku as the big three rivers. The program finished its seventh round of water quality testing on the Stikine River on Tuesday, heading north afterward to conduct its fifth round of testing on the Taku River near Juneau the following day.

The researchers have yet to venture up the Unuk, however, due to logistical problems. NLRD environmental specialist Jennifer Hanlon explained the river is already shallow and difficult to travel on, but that there have also been reports of logjams upstream which could pose navigational risks.

"It's not really a viable option," she concluded. "Our only option at this point would be a helicopter," but she added that would be difficult to organize due to the river's wilderness status. Moving forward, Hanlon said they may consider another sampling location.

Ideally, the testing will go on for three to five years. Funding has been secured for the field tests through December, but will likely have to be acquired on a year-by-year basis. Hanlon said NLRD was currently applying for funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 2017.

Hanlon said that though there was some existing historical data on the Stikine River's quality, the data being collected would help provide an updated foundation from which further tests could be made.

"That's only one piece of the story," she said.

Once a baseline is established, researchers can branch out to collect and analyze sediment and fish tissue for contaminants as well, as they would have a verified set of conditions by which to measure their findings.

"Our next step is to do quality assurance," Hanlon added.

Consultant Cathy Needham of Kai Environmental Consulting Services is helping to get the samples properly collected, logged and tested. She explained the data being collected requires validation. Information sets are taken from lab reports and compared to the field team's notes, checking for mistakes, then compared against state and federal standards. If data is flagged, a reconciliation process is initiated, where outside groups like the Environmental Protection Agency can weigh in to determine whether the conclusions hold up or if there were problems with the methodology.

Establishment of a baseline was spurred by mining developments upstream of Southeast's major rivers, which cross over and originate in Canada.

Located near the Stikine's headwaters, the Red Chris mine is the latest large-scale copper and gold mine to begin production, and the sixth in British Columbia to have started since 2011. The Red Chris is anticipated to produce copper and gold at a milling rate in the tens of thousands of tons per day over the next 30 years. The mine's operations are expected to produce several hundred million tons of acid-generating waste rock in the process, which will be submerged and retained nearby.

It was announced this month an amendment to Red Chris' permit application for a southern tailings dam was being sought, which would require an independent fish tissue sampling program. To be administered by the Environmental Oversight Committee for Red Chris, cooperatively run by the Tahltan Central Government and mine operator Imperial Metals, the study would monitor selenium levels in trout species living in lakes near the mine. Previous sampling in 2012 and 2015 had found selenium levels in local fish to be acceptable for human consumption, though the amounts present had nearly doubled over the three-year period.

A document on the subject put out by Imperial Metals in response indicated the lake being measured was beyond the drainage range of its tailings and waste rock storage, concluding the levels were unrelated to its mine's operations. Selenium is a nonmetallic element found in nature in trace amounts, which the United States Geological Survey identifies as a micronutrient for animals but toxic in any sizable quantities.