Alaska’s congressional delegation is making a renewed pitch to the Biden administration for binding protections against potential environmental damage from British Columbia mines near Canadian headwaters of Southeast Alaska rivers.
Their concerns were heightened after the June 24 heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine near the village of Mayo in the Yukon, the delegation said in a prepared statement Aug. 16.
“Without unified action from the executive branch, Canadian mining activity in this region will increasingly endanger U.S. communities and resources, such as salmon, without any mechanism for recourse or compensation,” said Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola.
The trio urged Biden administration in a letter of Aug. 13 to support a call for Canada to clean up the abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine, which has been polluting international waters for over 66 years from its location near the Taku River, northeast of Juneau.
They also requested that the U.S. and Canadian governments, transboundary states and provinces, Indigenous groups and communities establish an international framework to prevent and resolve disputes in transboundary waters, most likely under the International Joint Commission and the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent -Lang said the state has worked with its counterparts in British Columbia — meeting twice a year — and that the province now has bonding requirements for its mines.
Breanna Walker, director for Salmon Beyond Borders, in Juneau, said the progress in cleaning up the Tulsequah mine has been positive, but noted that the mine, closed decades ago, continues to pollute the Taku River. Tribes downstream need to be included in the process of the cleanup and consulted on protection of transboundary rivers from other mines that are closed, operating or proposed in British Columbia.
“The recent cyanide disaster and fish kills at Canada’s Eagle gold mine in the Yukon watershed, and the 10th anniversary of the massive mine waste dam failure at Canada’s Mount Polley mine in British Columbia, make clear that tribes and Alaskans need seats at the table when it comes to shaping the future of our shared wild salmon rivers,” Walker said.
In addition to the Taku, the two other transboundary rivers in Southeast are the Stikine and the Unuk, near Ketchikan.
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