The U.S. and Canada asked an international commission this week to study pollution in a massive watershed along the nations’ shared western border, a move that could be the first step toward cleanup.
The governments requested that the International Joint Commission recommend steps to reduce and mitigate mining pollution in Canada following years of complaints from Indigenous communities and environmental advocates.
The 18,000-square-mile Elk-Kootenai watershed straddles British Columbia, Montana and Idaho and is home to the Ktunaxa Nation, which includes tribes and first nations. For decades, active and shuttered mines for coal, copper, zinc and other minerals have imperiled waterways, fish and wildlife, the Ktunaxa Nation has said.
Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, called the proposal to the IJC a “long-awaited, collaborative action.”
