Congressional Delegation Voices Renewed Concern Over Transboundary Mines

Alaska’s congressional delegation is raising renewed concern with the Biden administration over environmental pollution issues from existing and planned British Columbia mines along the Taku, Stikine and Unuk rivers flowing into Southeast Alaska and Tongass National Forest.

In an Aug. 16 letter to President Joe Biden, the delegation renewed its plea for action in the wake of the recent heap leach pad failure at the Eagle Gold Mine in central Yukon. The facility uses a cyanide solution to percolate through ore to dissolve the gold.

The delegation, consisting of Republican U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, noted that it has been advocating for years for binding protections and financial assurances to protect these salmon rich rivers. Without unified action from the executive branch, Canadian mining activity in this region increasingly endangers U.S. communities and resources, without any mechanism for recourse or compensation, they said.

“We realize that the copper and critical minerals that come from Canadian mines are a key part of U.S. and allied national security and an important part of resource development,” the letter says in part. “However, there is no need to sacrifice environmental protections in order to safeguard our security and power our communities.”

They told the Biden administration that the Eagle Mine has only been operating for five years and by all indications the heap pad leach failure was caused by poor design and negligence.

“We are now only beginning to understand the true scale of the environmental impacts, and each update is more discouraging than the last,” the letter states.

They called for having Canada clean up its abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine, which they said has been polluting international waters for over six decades, and for establishment of an international framework to prevent and resolve disputes in these transboundary waters, most likely under the International Joint Commission and the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.

According to Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game Doug Vincent-Lang the state has been working with their British Columbia counterparts and the province does have bonding requirements in place now for their mines.

Vincent-Lang said he, with Alaska commissioners John Boyle of the Department of Natural Resources and Emma Poken of the Department of Environmental Conservation, have been meeting twice annually with provincial officials, their last meeting being in early August.

Breanna Walker, director of Salmon Beyond Borders, said progress made to date on the decades-old pollution from the Tulsequah Chef Mine has been positive, but that the mine, closed over 60 years ago, continues to pollute the Taku River.

She said that tribal entities need to be included in the cleanup and consulted on protecting the river environment from other mines now operating, closed and planned to reopen, as well as future mines in British Columbia. B.C. officials have said they have a plan in place for that cleanup, but that it will take several years to complete.