British Columbia may be able to move ahead with cleanup of the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine just a few miles from the Taku River that flows into Alaska waters.
Cleanup of the property just under 20 miles from the Canada-U.S. border, about 40 miles from Juneau, has been held up while the mine’s bankrupt owner, Chieftain Metals, of Ontario, was in receivership proceedings in court.
This month’s end of the receivership wipes away any legal holdups that have prevented the provincial government from taking action. The only statement made by the province as of Aug. 18 was its acknowledgment of the receivership conclusion. It provided no timeline or funding source for any cleanup.
“There is no more delay now, it’s time to get moving,” said Rob Sanderson, the chair of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. “The headwaters are in British Columbia, but we’re at the receiving end of it — and we’re going to fight to the nail.”
The abandoned copper, lead and zinc mine has been leaking toxic acid mine drainage into the Tulsequah River — a main tributary of the Taku and a prime Alaska salmon habitat — for more than six decades since the mine’s original closure in 1957.
Since then, two attempts have been made to revive the mine, but both were met with failure and bankruptcy in the process, the most recent the 2016 filing by Chieftain Metals.
The company’s main creditor, West Face Capital, has been trying to sell the mine to recoup some of its losses but presented no offers before it reached the Ontario Superior Court-ordered end to receivership on Aug. 11.
The mine’s negative impact has been wide-reaching not only to the environment in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska but also to the Alaska Native tribes who have lived in the watershed for centuries. The Taku River Tlingit First Nation filed suit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to stop the mine. Rivers Without Borders also commissioned a 2016 report that found an estimated 260,000 gallons of Tulsequah River contaminated water flows into the Taku River daily.
“It’s vital to the area and even more so to the culture and people that live around the Taku — you can’t put a dollar value on these river systems,” Sanderson said.
The B.C government has expressed concern in the past for the mine’s damage to 2020.
Sanderson urged the public to continue putting pressure on the provincial government to follow through with its commitments and prompt action, along with pressuring the U.S. government to take action well. He said if that happens, he believes the cleanup will happen.
Nikki Skuce, co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform Network, a collective of 30 local, provincial and national organizations, said she thinks it’s “amazing” to see the receivership has ended but agrees that more action needs to continue.
“It’s been polluting for 65 years and it’s a long overdue retirement for the mine for sure,” she said.” I think that it’s definitely an important milestone because now there are no excuses for moving forward and finding solutions to protect the watersheds.”
Multiple messages sent to the B.C. government were not returned.
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