An Overview of Coal Mining in the Elk Valley
Coal mining is one of British Columbia's largest revenue sources, but the hidden costs are much higher than we think.
There are approximately 21.9 billion tonnes of potentially mineable coal reserves in the province of British Columbia. Currently, 7 operating open pit coal mines in southeastern and northeastern BC produce between 25 - 30 million tonnes of coal per year, representing approximately 42.7%, or $3.97 billion, of the Provinces’ mining revenues. As of 2020, around 17 coal exploration and development projects are occurring in the Province 1 .
The Elk Valley produces 80% of Canada's total annual metallurgical coal exports 1 . Metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, is used as a fuel and reactant in the steelmaking process. Production comes from the Elkview, Fording River, Greenhills, and Line Creek operations owned and operated by Teck Coal Limited, producing primarily hard coking coal.
Despite the direct, short-term, economic benefits coal mining has for the Province and local communities, environmental impacts and human health risks are critical issues that must be understood for our communities to grasp the true cost of coal mines.
Metallurgical coal mining has provided prosperity to British Columbia, with thousands directly supported by these mines. Current mines are anticipated to operate for at least another 20 years, while proposed expansion projects would extend this lifespan to 48 years. It took us 48 years from the discovery of the electron to the development of the first nuclear bomb. There will be significant developments and advances in steel manufacturing over the next 48 years — we should not be chaining ourselves to coal mining to produce steel.
The Ktunaxa Nation has led efforts throughout Qukin ʔamakʔis (Raven’s Land – also known as the Elk Valley) to protect water, fish, and the environment from the impacts of coal mining. Their leadership in these efforts is a continuation of the millennia stewarding these lands and waters before colonists arrived in the region.
Elk Valley Coal
Southeastern British Columbia is home to approximately 8.0 billion tonnes of potentially mineable coal resources. Southeastern British Columbia, specifically the Elk Valley, is also home to one of Canada’s largest silent pollution crises. Selenium and other contaminants leaching from coal mines in the valley threaten aquatic ecosystems, endanger fish, and drinking water.
Coal Mining in the Elk Valley
The Elk Valley is home to 4 operational coal mines (grey), 1 mine in closing and reclamation (grey), and 5 proposed new mines or expansions (blue/red). The predominant environmental risk emerging from these mines is the release of selenium into rivers and streams. For example, in West Virginia, communities near open pit coal mines experience much higher rates of cardiovascular diseases, COPD, and cancers than communities further away 2,3 .
Fording River Operations
The Fording River Mine has been in operation for decades in the Elk Valley, producing approximately 9.0 million tonnes of coal per year. The Fording River Coal Mine, along with the Greenhills Coal Mine, was at the heart of the $60 million fine and conviction under the Fisheries Act for the release of toxic substances into the Upper Fording River in 2021.
Greenhills Operations
The Greenhills Coal Mine is located directly adjacent to the Fording River Coal Mine, producing approximately 5.4 million tonnes of coal per year. Selenium concentrations from mine effluent flowing into the Upper Fording River from this mine can reach concentrations up to 765 ug/L, 76.5 times higher than BC's guideline for drinking water sources 5 .
Line Creek Operations
The Line Creek Coal Mine is located south of the Fording River and Greenhills coal mines. The Line Creek Coal Mine was expanded in 2009 through the LCO Phase II Project, which is estimated to provide approximately 52 million tonnes of produced coal to the lifespan of the mine 6 .
A $40,000 penalty was handed down to Teck Coal Limited in 2021 for allowing stream levels to drastically drop in a 350m stretch of Dry Creek resulting in the death of 28 Westslope Cutthroat Trout 7 . This occurred after the reported 93% decline in the Upper Fording River WCT population, resulting in a 27% decline in the remaining population (based on estimates from Cope 2020 8 ).
Line Creek also received a fine of $1.425 million for the death of Westslope Cutthroat Trout downstream of their West Line Creek Active Water Treatment Facility 9 .
Elkview Operations
The Elkview Coal Mine is located adjacent to the town of Sparwood, producing 9 million tonnes of coal per year, with an expected lifespan of more than 30 years. Apart from the risk dust poses to the adjacent communities, in 2021, the Elkview Coal Mine was given a $117,000 penalty for failing effluent non-toxicity tests that would result in the death of at least 50% of fish or invertebrates 10 .
Coal Mountain Operations
The Coal Mountain Coal Mine reached the end of its operations in 2018. Extensive calcite cementation of tributaries downstream of the mine has occurred as a consequence of mining, limiting fish spawning habitat, and negatively impacting benthic invertebrate communities.
What is the Impact of Coal Mining?
Aside from the economic benefits coal mining has for the Province, many of the hidden costs, seldom discussed by politicians and the industry, fall on taxpayers and local communities to pay once the mines pack up. These include drastic reductions in water and air quality, loss of wildlife habitat, and significant greenhouse gas emissions. Coal mines in the Elk Valley are no different. The Elk Valley presents a spectacular case study of these impacts and illustrates the irrevocable damage that will occur in communities and on the landscape if new exploration and development projects become a reality. The Elk Valley also highlights the regulatory failures that have occurred allowing for this catastrophe to occur 5 . A balance needs to be struck between economic prosperity, long-term sustainability, and strong, enforceable regulations that ensure the environment and communities are protected before a balance can be struck﹣ a balance not yet found in the Elk Valley.
The Ktunaxa Nation Council has called for a suspension of all Provincial and Federal environmental assessments for new coal mines and coal mine expansions within Qukin ʔamakʔis (Raven’s Land – also known as the Elk Valley) 13 due to the severe environmental impacts occurring from the regions coal mines. Impacts to the environment have been severe and the current regulatory framework has done little to prevent the unfolding environmental crisis.
Overlook of the Fording River Coal Mine. Photo by Garth Lenz.
Water Quality
Selenium is the primary contaminant impacting water quality downstream of coal mines in the Elk Valley, although calcite, sulphates, and nitrates also pose a significant challenge to aquatic life.
The source of selenium in the watershed originates from the rock removed to access coal during the mining process. The removed rock, called overburden, is placed into external pit waste rock dumps after being blasted and hauled out of the active mine pit. The overburden then comes into contact with surface runoff and oxygen causing selenium to leach out of the rock. External pit waste rock dumps are thus the primary source of contamination impacting water quality in the Elk Valley and abroad.
Satellite images from 2009 (left) to 2021 (right) showing the growth of the Kilmarnock Creek external pit waste rock dump at the Fording River Operation. Image: Planet Labs Inc.
Satellite images from 2009 (left) to 2021 (right) showing the growth of the Erickson Creek external pit waste rock dump at the Elkview Operation. The 2021 image shows clear evidence of waste rock transported into the valley bottom from landslides. Image: Planet Labs Inc.
The deterioration in water quality from increased selenium concentrations poses two significant risks in the Elk Valley and the broader Kootenay/Kootenai Watershed (Elk River, Lake Koocanusa, Kootenay/Kootenai River) – the risk it poses to aquatic life, and the risk it poses to human health.
Comparison between BC's water quality guidelines, proposed limits in Part II of the proposed Coal Mining Effluent Regulations, and current water quality found in the Elk Valley. The proposed new limits in Part II of the proposed Coal Mining Effluent Regulations would only regulate coal mines owned and operated by Teck Coal Limited. The proposed regulations would permit selenium concentrations 5 times above BC's water quality guideline for drinking water sources for up to 5 years after the regulations come into force, and 4 times the guideline for up to 15 years after coming into force.
Experts have found that selenium significantly reduces reproductive success, increases the prevalence of deformities, and can cause acute lethality in fish and birds. These negative impacts have been observed in Westslope Cutthroat Trout of the Upper Fording River. Dr. Dennis Lemly, in the ECCC investigation, stated unequivocally: "The estimated annual loss of Westslope Cutthroat Trout embryos and fry in the Upper Fording, Lower Fording, Elk River, and Lake Koocanusa exceed one million eight hundred thousand individuals per year due to selenium poisoning" 11 .
One of the more nefarious consequences of selenium contamination in the environment is how these negative effects manifest themselves. Since the most common impact on fish is larval mortality, it is difficult to see the immediate effect until the population begins to collapse.
Although no known toxic effects of selenium in humans have been reported in the Elk Valley, selenium concentrations near Sparwood now exceed British Columbia's Drinking Water Quality Guidelines. In the ECCC investigation, expert opinion recommended high consumers of fish should not be consuming fish in the valley 11 . The consumption of large amounts of selenium or chronic selenium intoxication can result in selenosis. Selenosis results in fatigue, hair loss, nail damage, and neurotoxic effects.
These images present some of the impacts selenium toxicity has on fish in the Elk Valley. The first and second panel show Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT) with gill cover deformities 14 . The lower panel shows a WCT fry with a cranial deformity. In fish, reproductive failure is the predominant effect from selenium toxicity. This makes it hard to observe the negative impacts of selenium toxicity in the aquatic environment until catastrophic population collapses occur. This is why setting strong environmental guidelines that protect aquatic life is important to maintaining healthy fish populations. Images from [14] and [11].
Air Quality
The most significant risk coal mines pose to nearby communities in BC is reduced air quality. Although no research exists for communities within the Elk Valley, studies have been conducted for communities near coal mines in West Virginia. This research demonstrated that communities near coal mines experienced significantly higher rates of mortality from cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, respiratory diseases, dental diseases, and cancers compared to communities not located near mines 2,3 . Studies controlled for other factors like income, smoking rates, and education. When considered from an economic and public health perspective, the costs associated with premature mining-associated mortality outweighed the economic benefit of the coal industry.
Close up of a coal mine in the Elk Valley. Coal dust can be readily found throughout the snowpack in the areas surrounding mines, as dust is transported across the landscape by wind. Photo by Garth Lenz /ILCP.
Climate Change
Coal mining in the Elk Valley produces greenhouse gases primarily through three sources: fugitive methane, coal combustion, and vehicle exhaust. Although coal produced in the Elk Valley is not used in the Elk Valley, its combustion in places like Japan, China, South Korea, India, Eastern Canada, South America, and Europe all led to significant increases in atmospheric CO 2 . Accounting for the CO 2 released during combustion, and the CO 2 released during its transportation, coal mining in the Elk Valley would contribute approximately 56% of British Columbia’s total greenhouse gas emissions per year 12 .
Proposed Castle Mountain Mine
The proposed Castle Mountain Mine (Fording River Expansion Project) would encompass over 2,330 hectares of new land, extending mining in the Elk Valley until 2070.
High Elevation Grasslands
The creation of this mine will destroy high elevation grasslands. These grasslands are rare to BC and represent an important winter foraging area for bighorn sheep.
Fish Spawning Habitat
The creation of this mine will increase selenium, calcite, and other contaminants entering the environment. This will drastically reduce available fish spawning habitat in the Upper Fording River and downstream.
Coal Dust
The creation of this mine will continue the release of coal dust into the air. Coal dust poses a major risk to human health in the region.
Solutions
The primary means of halting the selenium contamination crisis in the Elk Valley may not be simple, but a clear step in the right direction that both the Provincial and Federal governments can take, in partnership with Indigenous Nations, is the formation of a watershed board under the International Joint Commission. The role of a watershed board will be to set up an equitable, objective framework to evaluate and ensure the protection of water quality, fish, and communities in the Elk River, Lake Koocanusa, and the Kootenay/Kootenai River, while allowing for recommendations to be made to the commission based on a shared vision of a healthy and prosperous watershed. The watershed board will also collect and disseminate information, investigate issues, and provide recommendations for potential solutions to governments. The Great Lakes Agreement is one such example of a watershed board under the International Joint Commission that had great success in addressing pollution in the Great Lakes.
Changes to the proposed Coal Mining Effluent Regulations also need to occur for the crisis in the Elk Valley to improve. In its current form, Part II in the proposed regulations will effectively permit current levels of selenium pollution. Unless immediate changes are made to Part II of the proposed Coal Mining Effluent Regulations, the contamination crisis will only worsen.
Finally, the most effective method in addressing the current selenium contamination crisis occurring in the Elk Valley is through the removal of external pit waste rock dumps, the installation and widespread use of geosynthetic covers, the building of additional active water treatment facilities to treat 100% of mine-affected waters, and a pause on all planned coal mines or coal mine expansions until the problem is solved and the environment restored.
A photo looking out over the landscape in the Elk Valley.
This is only the first installment in a five-part series examining the risks and impacts of coal mining within the Elk Valley and Canada. Please join us as we dive into detail on the cost coal mining has had on the environment, human health, and climate change, before presenting solutions to the current crisis.
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Footnotes
3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693168/
10) https://nrced.gov.bc.ca/records;issuedToCompany=true;dateRangeToFilter=2022-04-25T04:00:00.000Z;keywords=Teck;ms=616;activityType=AdministrativePenaltyNRCED,AdministrativeSanctionNRCED;dateRangeFromFilter=2015-01-01T05:00:00.000Z;currentPage=1;pageSize=25;sortBy=-dateIssued;autofocus=620e8a9a57a5a100226ce8f0
11) Teck Coal Limited Direction and Appendices File: 8000-2017-01-22-391610 (G) 5008-2010-06- 16-993 (N) 32. A. 10.
12) Citation for climate change risk provided in Cost of Climate Change Map.
