The governments of Alaska and neighboring province British Columbia initiated their first bilateral working group on transboundary mining and water quality concerns earlier this month.
In a statement from his office released last week, Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott expressed his appreciation for the meeting, which was one of the measures outlined in a statement of cooperation the two governments signed in October. The agreement was a next step in the process of addressing concerns among Southeast Alaskan communities about the ecological impacts of sizable Canadian mining developments upstream of shared river systems, an initiative Mallott is heading up for the state.
“We have come a long way with the help of many citizens in Alaska and British Columbia who care deeply about the quality of our water, our fisheries, and way of life, and I thank them,” he was quoted as saying. “However, we know success will only be measured by how well we do going forward. I was pleased with the commitment I saw in Friday’s meeting to protecting Southeast waters.”
Under the statement the two parties agree to coordinate more closely on water quality monitoring, improve information exchange on Canadian mines’ environmental performance, and to better make that information available for Alaskans and give them opportunity to comment on new mining projects.
The working group formed as a part of this agreement includes members of the Alaska departments of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), Fish and Game (ADFG), and Natural Resources (DNR) and British Columbian counterparts in the ministries of Environment, and Energy and Mines.
ADEC is Alaska’s lead for implementing a water quality monitoring program, using federal Environmental Protection Agency funding and collaborating with regional monitors like that maintained by the Tlingit-Haida Central Council (CCTHITA). The state agency intends to incorporate data CCTHITA’s Native Lands and Resources Department has been collecting from the Stikine, Taku and Unuk rivers.
DNR reported it is developing an online, interactive map that will make it easier for the public to obtain information about mining projects across the border, and intends to have it ready for demonstration in January.
The cooperation statement calls for draft plans for the monitoring program and improved communication channels to be taken up by the bilateral working group no later than April 2017. In the media release, DNR confirmed it has been working with B.C. counterparts on a set of protocols and procedures to be proposed to the work group at its meeting next month.
Despite the step forward, concerns over the well-being of transboundary rivers continue by residents and user groups on both sides of the border. One large-scale open-pit site, the Red Chris copper and gold mine, began operation last year some 11 miles from the Stikine River’s headwaters. Another even larger project in the Stikine watershed still under consideration is Galore Creek, which is believed to hold one of the world’s largest untapped gold deposits.
“It’ll be one of the largest open pit mines in the world, if it was developed. And that’s concerning,” explained Guy Archibald, mining and clean water coordinator for Inside Passage Waterkeepers, an affiliated program of Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.
Currently progress on developing Galore Creek is at a standstill, but the proposal for a hydropower facility 25 miles away at More Creek – which feeds into the Iskut River, a major tributary to the Stikine – is under review by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. Slated to produce 348 gigawatt hours of power each year, Archibald noted its installation could help recharge efforts to build the nearby mine.
“Anything that makes those mines more economically feasible to me is kind of dangerous,” he commented.
While the bilateral working group had discussed the More Creek project’s environmental impact, Archibald pointed out its potential connection to future mining development was not addressed.
Fears about the impact of Canadian open-pit mining projects on shared river salmon were stoked in August 2014 after the rupture of the tailings dam at Mount Polley, a B.C. mine operated by Red Chris owner Imperial Metals. The breach was an ecological disaster, releasing around 4.5 million cubic meters of slurry and twice that of contaminated water into the nearby Fraser River. Rehabilitation and monitoring of affected portions of the river system are ongoing, though onsite monitoring reports “the environment is recovering rapidly.” After a scaling back of production at the mine site through 2015, Imperial Metals’ production targets indicate the mine is back on track to produce 27-29 million pounds of copper for 2016.
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