The headwater coal mines in BC's Elk Valley have contributed to decades of selenium pollution in the freshwater ecosystems of the transboundary Canada / United States Elk – Kootenai River watershed, evidenced in part by the $60 million fine imposed on Teck Resources Ltd. under Canada’s Fisheries Act in 2021 for the ‘deposit of deleterious substances.' 

 

We applied principles of international law to formulate a two-part conclusion in the form of (1) a short-term solution to effectively facilitate a resolution of transboundary mining pollution in the Elk – Kootenai River watershed; (2) a long-term solution to settle future disagreements regarding transboundary pollution between Canada and the United States.​