I live and work in Fernie BC Canada as a professional fly fishing guide on the Elk River. I spend more days out on the water interacting with the river then most people. So when something changes or happens to the Elk River I tend to notice. Of late there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the Elk and a lot of the buzz has to do with the levels of Selenium in the Elk River becoming toxic.
If you haven't been paying attention let me bring you up to speed.
The Elk is polluted!
Don't look so surprised, with fifty years of heavy mining occurring in the Elk Valley one cannot expect that the Elk River and some of its tributaries would be a pristine pieces of water.
Lets be real, Teck Coal runs five Huge coal mining operations in various locations around the Elk Valley and they are having an impact.
As a result of continued NEGLIGENCE of the part of the Ministry of Environment and Teck Coal Ltd, levels of Selenium and Cadmium have been allowed to creep ever closer to toxic levels for the biota inhabiting the Elk River. As I understand it, if nothing is done it will take less than a decade for things to go terribly wrong for the Elk.
In what seems to be a knee jerk reaction the MOE has given Teck Coal a little spanking regarding the pollution in Elk.
In response to the MOE's spanking Teck Coal has committed $600 million over the next ten years to try and curtail the pollution problem. Teck has even went so far as to hold two public meetings where by they outlined their plans to mitigate the Selenium problem. I attended one of the meetings and it was purely lip service.
Here are the facts:
-Teck has no real idea of how to contain the Selenium problem.
-Teck will continue operations and will continue to pollute with out any real repercussions from the MOE
-Teck Coal has no intention of following its own Selenium containment program
-Teck will expand its operations regardless of pollution problems
Lets get real again, mining is an integral part of the Elk Valley and it will continue to be for a long time. We should all understand that without the mines the towns of Sparwood and Fernie would not exist as they do. With the understanding that Teck Coal isn't going anywhere, what can be done to find a solution that works for all?
In my mind it time for the Ministry of Environment to grow a back bone.
Its time for our government to take action and really police big industry. Every summer the Elk River experiences spills originating from one of Teck Coals operations. In extreme cases these spills turn the Elk Rivers water from clear to brown, I can only imagine how many spills go undetected. Come on MOE quit dropping the ball and hold Teck accountable! Fine them! A lot!
Its time for Teck to recognize the intrinsic value of our wild places and put some real money behind protecting and cleaning up the land they make so much money from. I'm sorry $600 million over a decade isn't enough of a commitment from a company that sold four BILLION dollars last year.
And for those of us who either enjoy the river or make our living from it, its time for us to start policing Teck on our own. We can do our own water quality testing, our own bug and fish sampling, and start holding Teck accountable for it NEGLIGENCE.
Mark my words folks, if we continue on this path the Elk Valley will become just another, "woulda, coulda, shoulda" scenario.
I've dropped the Selenium bomb several times, here is some light reading about it:
Selenium Link
Selenium and Trout
These are just two examples of what can be found if you ask the Google God for answers, if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me.
Come to think of it I am sure that Bill Bennett and Terry Lake would be happy to field some questions, here is there contact info:
Bill Bennett: East Kootenay MLA
Email: bill.bennett.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone:1-250-356-1748
Terry Lake Minister of Environment
Email: env.minister@gov.bc.ca
Phone:1-250-387-1187
Peace and love,
Spence
