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Teck Resources, B.C. government pressed Ottawa to resist investigation into coal mine pollution

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Tuesday, November 8, 2022

By Ainslie Cruickshank and Francesca Fionda Internal documents show the B.C. government and mining giant Teck Resources quietly lobbied senior federal officials to quash a potential Canada-U.S. inquiry into transboundary water pollution from Teck’s coal mines in southeast B.C.  A February 2022 document prepared for senior provincial officials states “B.C. remains opposed” to the possibility of an inquiry into the extensive contamination. Get The Narwhal in your inbox! People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalism. Get The Narwhal in your inbox! People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalism. Teck operates four active mines in the Elk Valley, which produce metallurgical coal used in the steelmaking process. The mines are upstream of the Fording and Elk Rivers, whose waters ultimately flow into the United States. For decades, selenium, an element that can cause deformities and impede reproduction in fish and other wildlife, has leached from the enormous piles of waste rock left over after the coal has been stripped and shipped away. Government inspection records from last year show selenium concentrations more than 100 times higher than levels considered safe for aquatic life have been detected in the Fording River, downstream of two of Teck’s mines.  That water then flows into the Elk River, before merging with the Kootenay River at Lake Koocanusa, a transboundary reservoir created by Montana’s Libby Dam. From there, the water travels along the Kootenai River through Montana and Idaho before flowing back into B.C. Teck’s metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal “The fact that we’re getting pushback from B.C., it’s just unimaginable,” Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it Nasuʔkin (Chief) Heidi Gravelle said in an interview.  Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it, also known as the Tobacco Plains Indian Band, is one of several communities that make up the Ktunaxa Nation, whose territory covers parts of the region known today as B.C., Alberta, Montana, Idaho and Washington State. Over the last decade, the Ktunaxa Nation Council, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, which are all part of the transboundary Ktunaxa Nation, have repeatedly called on the Canadian and U.S. governments to refer the persistent pollution from Teck’s mines to the International Joint Commission — an organization established to prevent and resolve disputes relating to shared waterways between the two countries.  The sun rises over the Elk River outside Fernie, B.C. Levels of selenium, which can be toxic for fish, are rising in the Elk River. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal Nasuʔkin (Chief) Heidi Gravelle of the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡiʾit First Nation said Teck’s coal mining operations have harmed her community by polluting local rivers. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal “You think you’re making headway when it comes to doing the right thing and putting our environment and ecosystem first,” Gravelle said. To then learn that’s not the case is both “disheartening” and “frustrating,” she added. “My kids, my grandkids will never get the experience from the Elk River that I did, or my dad did or that my grandparents did.” “When those areas are disturbed — and more than disturbed, completely and entirely annihilated through contamination — our livelihood is taken away,” Gravelle said. “Who we are is ripped from us.” Letters B.C. government sent to federal counterparts ‘disturbing’ and ‘disheartening’: environmental lawyer The internal documents, obtained by the Ktunaxa Nation Council through a freedom of information request to the B.C. government, show the province actively pushed its federal counterparts to reject calls for the commission’s involvement. The internal emails and letters between the provincial government, Teck and the federal department of Global Affairs Canada “substantiate what we have long suspected,” Calvin Sandborn, senior counsel at the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, told The Narwhal. “The government of British Columbia is aligning itself with Teck Corporation and acceding to the request of Teck to oppose an International Joint Commission reference.”  The commission was created under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to study and recommend solutions to intractable disputes. Conservation groups on both sides of the border and the U.S. Department of State support the commission’s involvement in this case.  The commission launches a study of transboundary issues at the request of national governments. These requests are called references. Once a reference is received, the commission appoints a professional board of experts from each country to review the issues. Selenium occurs naturally in rocks in the Elk Valley. When these massive piles of waste rock are exposed to rain and snowmelt, the contaminant slowly leaches into the water, eventually finding its way into nearby rivers and creeks. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal Global Affairs Canada and the U.S. Department of State had been in talks over a possible reference to the International Joint Commission. But in late April, a federal official emailed the Ktunaxa Nation Council to say the Canadian government had “decided [International Joint Commission] involvement was not the best route at this time.”  The newly released B.C. internal documents show B.C. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Bruce Ralston wrote in an April 2022 letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly that “the province maintains there are other, more efficient ways to address concerns around selenium levels.” In an interview with The Narwhal last November, Heyman would not comment on whether the province supported referring the contamination issue to the joint commission. But these newly released documents reveal his government had already taken a position. Months earlier, B.C.’s deputy minister of Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat wrote in a August 2021 letter to the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa: “It is the view of the Government of British Columbia that pursuing a referral to the [International Joint Commission] would compromise ongoing cross-border environmental management efforts which are on track to address concerns that have been raised.” In their April 2022 letter, the B.C. ministers went on to say it was “more important than ever” to support the province’s metallurgical coal mining industry to meet growing global demand for steel, which among other things is a feedstock for the low-carbon economic transition. The ministers also pointed to the several thousand people employed by the mines and significant government revenue generated each year by the company’s coal operations. Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, wants the International Joint Commission to look at cross-border coal mine pollution in the Kootenai watershed. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal “It’s disturbing” and “disheartening” the B.C. minister of environment would oppose a reference to the International Joint Commission, Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre, said, adding the commission is an objective group that has found innovative, win-win approaches to pollution problems across the US-Canada border for over a century. “They’re experts seeking a solution. How can that be threatening?”  A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy did not directly respond to questions asking why the provincial government opposed involving the joint commission. Despite B.C.’s concerns, and comments to Ktunaxa Nation by one of its own officials, the federal government is still considering a possible reference to the International Joint Commission, Kaitlin Power, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada Minister Stephen Guilbeault said in an emailed statement to The Narwhal. In the meantime, provincial staff are prioritizing work to address water quality issues in the Elk Valley, a spokesperson for the B.C. Environment Ministry said. “We will continue to work with Nations, U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, and the State of Montana to understand where there might be gaps in existing processes and to find the best place to address them,” the statement said. Ktunaxa Nation says B.C., federal governments failed to uphold commitments to UNDRIP Discussions between the province and the federal government excluded the Ktunaxa Nation, Chief Gravelle said — a move she called “frustrating” and “belittling.” In a press release, Ktunaxa Nation Council said the documents show provincial and federal governments have failed to uphold their legal obligations to Ktunaxa Nation and their commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “The released documents reveal that officials from the highest levels of the federal and provincial governments engaged in discussions about the reference which excluded Ktunaxa and ignored Ktunaxa title, rights and governance authority,” it said. In a statement, the spokesperson for B.C.’s Environment Ministry said the province “continues to be engaged with all parties to improve water quality in the Elk River Valley without the involvement of the International Joint Commission.” “We have been consistent on this position and have been engaged with all levels of government, including the Government of Canada, on ongoing plans for the region,” the statement said. One of Teck Resources’ metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley. Despite calls from Indigenous groups in Canada and the U.S. to investigate coal mine pollution, the company and the B.C. government have lobbied against having the cross-border environmental impacts from these mines scrutinized by an international body. Photo: Callum Gunn Teck executive warned international commission’s involvement could harm Canada’s reputation  The records released in the freedom of information request show a senior Teck executive also lobbied the federal government to abandon any potential reference to the commission. Teck — which reported a gross profit of $1.2 billion from its steelmaking coal operations in the third quarter of this year — operates the four active metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley. The company also has a proposed mine undergoing environmental assessment. In a letter to Global Affairs Canada this past spring, Teck’s then senior vice president of sustainability and external affairs Marcia Smith said involving the joint commission would be the “wrong approach.” She said a reference to the commission would not only impact Teck but also “negatively impact the reputation of Canada’s regulatory system.” Speaking to The Narwhal earlier this month, Gravelle dismissed the concern. “The harm has already been done, the reputation’s already been completely damaged.” Smith’s letter went on to raise concerns that International Joint Commission involvement “could delay permitting and projects vital to Canada’s ability to continue to produce much needed steelmaking coal.” She also wrote it would “distract” from the company’s ongoing efforts to address the selenium contamination. “At worst, it could be a de facto derailment,” she said.  In a statement to The Narwhal, Teck’s public relations manager Chris Stannell reiterated the company’s position, writing “there are other more effective ways to address selenium concerns in the Koocanusa Reservoir underway that involve transboundary collaboration.” Teck’s ongoing efforts to address pollution are not enough, observers say Efforts have been made to address the selenium levels in the Elk Valley. At the request of the B.C. government in 2013, Teck developed the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan with input from affected First Nations as well as B.C. and U.S. government agencies, to address contamination from coal mining in the watershed.  Stannell said Teck Resources has so far invested $1.2 billion in water treatment and other measures and plans to invest an additional $750 million over the next few years. In an email to The Narwhal, Stannell said the company works “with stakeholders on both sides of the border to make water quality data publicly available.”  The company’s existing water treatment plants “are effectively removing 95 per cent of selenium from water,” Stannell said. He added that selenium concentrations “have been stable for at least a decade and are lower than in many other water bodies in the state of Montana.”  Westslope cutthroat trout are listed as a species of concern under the Species at Risk Act. In fish, selenium poisoning can cause deformities and reproductive failure. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal But Environment and Climate Change Canada data shows selenium inputs to the Koocanusa Reservoir from the Elk River are rising. Levels in both the Koocanusa and the Kootenai River downstream have been increasing for years, according to Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station who has worked with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “B.C.’s regulatory process has failed to do anything about those increasing contaminant trends, Teck Coal is years behind in terms of implementing mitigation for those contaminants,” she said. So far, Teck’s efforts haven’t proven to be effective according to Wyatt Petryshen, mining policy and impacts researcher with the environmental group Wildsight. “Selenium concentrations have continued to rise despite those best efforts,” he said. The province has also failed to address concerns around selenium, Sandborn said. While Teck was recently ordered to pay $60 million for polluting waterways in the Elk Valley, there are dozens of instances where Teck was not penalized for toxicity contraventions over the years.  “The regulatory negligence that the province of British Columbia has shown in regard to this coal pollution has been wretched,” Sandborn said. Sandborn and his students at University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre prepared a 2021 submission for Wildsight on the pollution in Elk Valley. It described the mine discharge in the area as “one of the world’s largest selenium contamination events — and one of North America’s most serious pollution problems.” South of the border, U.S. state, federal and Tribal agencies are investigating the spread of the contamination.  Travis Schmidt, a United States Geological Survey research ecologist leading the agency’s Lake Koocanusa monitoring program, said in an email to The Narwhal that in each of the last few years higher selenium concentrations have been detected at the international boundary in the reservoir than previously recorded. The agency is building a year-round monitoring program to better understand how selenium concentrations are shifting over time at the international boundary and what factors are contributing to those changes. Teck and province ‘making decisions for everyone else’: mining researcher A watershed board within the International Joint Commission would bring together all the groups impacted by mining in the Elk Valley within an impartial and transparent framework to make decisions, Petryshen said. Without it, “it’s mostly Teck and the province making decisions for everyone else,” he added. The commission would also provide independent experts who could set objective standards and make pollution data accessible, Sandborn said. “Under the current system in British Columbia, scientists can’t get the data they need to analyze and fix the problem.”  One of the challenges, Sexton, the scientist at the University of Montana, said, is B.C.’s professional reliance system under which Teck is responsible for collecting its own data and monitoring itself. Teck is selective about the data it releases publicly, Sexton said. “If I want to know what is the volume of contaminated water coming down from the mines in the Elk Valley and how much of that is being treated — I can’t find that information anywhere. It doesn’t exist on any public website or any publicly available document,” she said. Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, said selenium concentrations in the watershed have been increasing for years. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal According to Teck, the company has the capacity to treat more than 47 million litres of water every day. What’s not clear is what proportion of contaminated water is being treated. The Narwhal has repeatedly asked the company for that information, but Teck has so far not provided it. Petryshen, who has been investigating the impacts of coal mine expansion in the Elk Valley for Wildsight, believes the volume of water being treated by Teck’s facilities is too low to be effective. Unless Teck can drastically ramp up their water treatment Teck should pause on any expansions, Petryshen said.  In a statement to The Narwhal, the B.C. Environment Ministry said “in response to data accessibility concerns we have heard, B.C. is developing and intends to launch a new online tool to improve availability and transparency of information and data related to water quality and regulatory activities in the Elk Valley.” The province is also working with the four Ktunaxa First Nations on a proposal to update the Elk Valley water quality plan, the statement said. United States Geological Survey research ecologist Travis Schmidt (left) and field technician Chad Reese, inspect a floating water sample collector on Lake Koocanusa above the Libby Dam, in Libby, Mont. The U.S. Geological Survey is building a year-round selenium monitoring program in Lake Koocanusa. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal In the meantime, Richard Janssen, the natural resources department head for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said the data shows selenium is trending up. “If you continue at this rate, it’s going to have even drastic or more detrimental effects to our cultural resources, the land that we enjoy, the flora and fauna, the birds — the fish is a big one that we have subsistence rights,” he said. “We are firm on our stance that an [International Joint Commission] is the way to go, where it’s transparent, it brings all stakeholders at the table to come up with a solution that will benefit all to keep these natural resources healthy and pristine for the next generations,” Janssen said. Does Canada need B.C.’s blessing? There is a possibility that a reference to the International Joint Commission could go ahead whether or not Canada agrees. A reference to the committee, without the support of both countries, has never been done in the more than 100-year history of the organization, according to an email between federal and provincial officials, obtained through a freedom of information request by Ktunaxa Nation Council. In a letter from Teck to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, a Teck senior executive warned a unilateral reference “would stand as a flagrant jurisdictional overreach.”  The commission has stated it is prepared to move forward and act on a request from the U.S. without Canada. B.C.’s Minister of Environment and Minister of Mining are “standing in the way,” Sandborn said. “It’s a serious international issue. Is Canada going to be a co-operative problem solver on pollution or not?”  Meanwhile, Minister Guilbeault is preparing to welcome the world to Montreal for the United Nations biodiversity conference this December.  “Nature knows no boundaries — not local, not provincial or territorial and not international. We are all in this together,” Guilbeault recently wrote in an op-ed published by The Narwhal. Thousands of international delegates will be attending the 15th annual Convention of Parties (COP15) to discuss the world’s declining biodiversity. Canada has international legal obligations under the Boundary Waters Treaty and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Petryshen at Wildsight said the federal government is between a rock and a hard place given B.C.’s stance on the issue. Ultimately, Petryshen believes the best mechanism to address these trans-boundary pollution concerns is through a joint reference with the U.S. to the International Joint Commission. “The [International Joint Commission] is the most transparent and impartial framework in which we can solve this problem.” Gravelle agrees. “What happened in the valley has been an extreme example of when you do things wrong, for the sake of every dime on the table you get detrimental impacts that are completely irreversible, that are now trickling down the water streams and affecting the livelihood and the inherent right of the original people, which is wrong,” she said. “At the end of the day, what do we do? We won’t give up, we won’t stop, because enough is enough.”

By Ainslie Cruickshank and Francesca Fionda For a decade Ktunaxa Nation has been calling for a Canada-U.S. body to investigate coal pollution. New records show the B.C. government and Teck Resources lobbied against it.

Internal documents show the B.C. government and mining giant Teck Resources quietly lobbied senior federal officials to quash a potential Canada-U.S. inquiry into transboundary water pollution from Teck’s coal mines in southeast B.C. 

A February 2022 document prepared for senior provincial officials states “B.C. remains opposed” to the possibility of an inquiry into the extensive contamination.

Get The Narwhal in your inbox!
People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalism.
Get The Narwhal in your inbox!
People always tell us they love our newsletter. Find out yourself with a weekly dose of our ad‑free, independent journalism.

Teck operates four active mines in the Elk Valley, which produce metallurgical coal used in the steelmaking process. The mines are upstream of the Fording and Elk Rivers, whose waters ultimately flow into the United States. For decades, selenium, an element that can cause deformities and impede reproduction in fish and other wildlife, has leached from the enormous piles of waste rock left over after the coal has been stripped and shipped away. Government inspection records from last year show selenium concentrations more than 100 times higher than levels considered safe for aquatic life have been detected in the Fording River, downstream of two of Teck’s mines. 

That water then flows into the Elk River, before merging with the Kootenay River at Lake Koocanusa, a transboundary reservoir created by Montana’s Libby Dam. From there, the water travels along the Kootenai River through Montana and Idaho before flowing back into B.C.

Teck Coal Mines
Teck’s metallurgical coal mines are all upstream of the transboundary Koocanusa Reservoir. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

“The fact that we’re getting pushback from B.C., it’s just unimaginable,” Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it Nasuʔkin (Chief) Heidi Gravelle said in an interview. 

Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it, also known as the Tobacco Plains Indian Band, is one of several communities that make up the Ktunaxa Nation, whose territory covers parts of the region known today as B.C., Alberta, Montana, Idaho and Washington State. Over the last decade, the Ktunaxa Nation Council, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, which are all part of the transboundary Ktunaxa Nation, have repeatedly called on the Canadian and U.S. governments to refer the persistent pollution from Teck’s mines to the International Joint Commission — an organization established to prevent and resolve disputes relating to shared waterways between the two countries. 

“You think you’re making headway when it comes to doing the right thing and putting our environment and ecosystem first,” Gravelle said. To then learn that’s not the case is both “disheartening” and “frustrating,” she added. “My kids, my grandkids will never get the experience from the Elk River that I did, or my dad did or that my grandparents did.”

“When those areas are disturbed — and more than disturbed, completely and entirely annihilated through contamination — our livelihood is taken away,” Gravelle said. “Who we are is ripped from us.”

Letters B.C. government sent to federal counterparts ‘disturbing’ and ‘disheartening’: environmental lawyer

The internal documents, obtained by the Ktunaxa Nation Council through a freedom of information request to the B.C. government, show the province actively pushed its federal counterparts to reject calls for the commission’s involvement.

The internal emails and letters between the provincial government, Teck and the federal department of Global Affairs Canada “substantiate what we have long suspected,” Calvin Sandborn, senior counsel at the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, told The Narwhal. “The government of British Columbia is aligning itself with Teck Corporation and acceding to the request of Teck to oppose an International Joint Commission reference.” 

The commission was created under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty to study and recommend solutions to intractable disputes. Conservation groups on both sides of the border and the U.S. Department of State support the commission’s involvement in this case. 

The commission launches a study of transboundary issues at the request of national governments. These requests are called references. Once a reference is received, the commission appoints a professional board of experts from each country to review the issues.

Terraced slopes of black waste rock at a Teck coal mine
Selenium occurs naturally in rocks in the Elk Valley. When these massive piles of waste rock are exposed to rain and snowmelt, the contaminant slowly leaches into the water, eventually finding its way into nearby rivers and creeks. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal

Global Affairs Canada and the U.S. Department of State had been in talks over a possible reference to the International Joint Commission. But in late April, a federal official emailed the Ktunaxa Nation Council to say the Canadian government had “decided [International Joint Commission] involvement was not the best route at this time.” 

The newly released B.C. internal documents show B.C. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Bruce Ralston wrote in an April 2022 letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly that “the province maintains there are other, more efficient ways to address concerns around selenium levels.”

In an interview with The Narwhal last November, Heyman would not comment on whether the province supported referring the contamination issue to the joint commission. But these newly released documents reveal his government had already taken a position.

Months earlier, B.C.’s deputy minister of Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat wrote in a August 2021 letter to the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa: “It is the view of the Government of British Columbia that pursuing a referral to the [International Joint Commission] would compromise ongoing cross-border environmental management efforts which are on track to address concerns that have been raised.”

In their April 2022 letter, the B.C. ministers went on to say it was “more important than ever” to support the province’s metallurgical coal mining industry to meet growing global demand for steel, which among other things is a feedstock for the low-carbon economic transition. The ministers also pointed to the several thousand people employed by the mines and significant government revenue generated each year by the company’s coal operations.

Calvin Sandborn
Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, wants the International Joint Commission to look at cross-border coal mine pollution in the Kootenai watershed. Photo: Taylor Roades / The Narwhal

“It’s disturbing” and “disheartening” the B.C. minister of environment would oppose a reference to the International Joint Commission, Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre, said, adding the commission is an objective group that has found innovative, win-win approaches to pollution problems across the US-Canada border for over a century. “They’re experts seeking a solution. How can that be threatening?” 

A spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy did not directly respond to questions asking why the provincial government opposed involving the joint commission.

Despite B.C.’s concerns, and comments to Ktunaxa Nation by one of its own officials, the federal government is still considering a possible reference to the International Joint Commission, Kaitlin Power, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada Minister Stephen Guilbeault said in an emailed statement to The Narwhal.

In the meantime, provincial staff are prioritizing work to address water quality issues in the Elk Valley, a spokesperson for the B.C. Environment Ministry said.

“We will continue to work with Nations, U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, and the State of Montana to understand where there might be gaps in existing processes and to find the best place to address them,” the statement said.

Ktunaxa Nation says B.C., federal governments failed to uphold commitments to UNDRIP

Discussions between the province and the federal government excluded the Ktunaxa Nation, Chief Gravelle said — a move she called “frustrating” and “belittling.” In a press release, Ktunaxa Nation Council said the documents show provincial and federal governments have failed to uphold their legal obligations to Ktunaxa Nation and their commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“The released documents reveal that officials from the highest levels of the federal and provincial governments engaged in discussions about the reference which excluded Ktunaxa and ignored Ktunaxa title, rights and governance authority,” it said.

In a statement, the spokesperson for B.C.’s Environment Ministry said the province “continues to be engaged with all parties to improve water quality in the Elk River Valley without the involvement of the International Joint Commission.”

“We have been consistent on this position and have been engaged with all levels of government, including the Government of Canada, on ongoing plans for the region,” the statement said.

One of Teck Resources’ metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley. Despite calls from Indigenous groups in Canada and the U.S. to investigate coal mine pollution, the company and the B.C. government have lobbied against having the cross-border environmental impacts from these mines scrutinized by an international body. Photo: Callum Gunn

Teck executive warned international commission’s involvement could harm Canada’s reputation 

The records released in the freedom of information request show a senior Teck executive also lobbied the federal government to abandon any potential reference to the commission.

Teck — which reported a gross profit of $1.2 billion from its steelmaking coal operations in the third quarter of this year — operates the four active metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley. The company also has a proposed mine undergoing environmental assessment.

In a letter to Global Affairs Canada this past spring, Teck’s then senior vice president of sustainability and external affairs Marcia Smith said involving the joint commission would be the “wrong approach.”

She said a reference to the commission would not only impact Teck but also “negatively impact the reputation of Canada’s regulatory system.”

Speaking to The Narwhal earlier this month, Gravelle dismissed the concern. “The harm has already been done, the reputation’s already been completely damaged.”

Smith’s letter went on to raise concerns that International Joint Commission involvement “could delay permitting and projects vital to Canada’s ability to continue to produce much needed steelmaking coal.”

She also wrote it would “distract” from the company’s ongoing efforts to address the selenium contamination. “At worst, it could be a de facto derailment,” she said. 

In a statement to The Narwhal, Teck’s public relations manager Chris Stannell reiterated the company’s position, writing “there are other more effective ways to address selenium concerns in the Koocanusa Reservoir underway that involve transboundary collaboration.”

Teck’s ongoing efforts to address pollution are not enough, observers say

Efforts have been made to address the selenium levels in the Elk Valley. At the request of the B.C. government in 2013, Teck developed the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan with input from affected First Nations as well as B.C. and U.S. government agencies, to address contamination from coal mining in the watershed. 

Stannell said Teck Resources has so far invested $1.2 billion in water treatment and other measures and plans to invest an additional $750 million over the next few years. In an email to The Narwhal, Stannell said the company works “with stakeholders on both sides of the border to make water quality data publicly available.” 

The company’s existing water treatment plants “are effectively removing 95 per cent of selenium from water,” Stannell said. He added that selenium concentrations “have been stable for at least a decade and are lower than in many other water bodies in the state of Montana.” 

Westslope cutthroat trout
Westslope cutthroat trout are listed as a species of concern under the Species at Risk Act. In fish, selenium poisoning can cause deformities and reproductive failure. Photo: Jayce Hawkins / The Narwhal

But Environment and Climate Change Canada data shows selenium inputs to the Koocanusa Reservoir from the Elk River are rising. Levels in both the Koocanusa and the Kootenai River downstream have been increasing for years, according to Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station who has worked with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

“B.C.’s regulatory process has failed to do anything about those increasing contaminant trends, Teck Coal is years behind in terms of implementing mitigation for those contaminants,” she said.

So far, Teck’s efforts haven’t proven to be effective according to Wyatt Petryshen, mining policy and impacts researcher with the environmental group Wildsight. “Selenium concentrations have continued to rise despite those best efforts,” he said.

Selenium levels at Lake Koocanusa

The province has also failed to address concerns around selenium, Sandborn said. While Teck was recently ordered to pay $60 million for polluting waterways in the Elk Valley, there are dozens of instances where Teck was not penalized for toxicity contraventions over the years.

 “The regulatory negligence that the province of British Columbia has shown in regard to this coal pollution has been wretched,” Sandborn said.

Sandborn and his students at University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre prepared a 2021 submission for Wildsight on the pollution in Elk Valley. It described the mine discharge in the area as “one of the world’s largest selenium contamination events — and one of North America’s most serious pollution problems.”

South of the border, U.S. state, federal and Tribal agencies are investigating the spread of the contamination

Travis Schmidt, a United States Geological Survey research ecologist leading the agency’s Lake Koocanusa monitoring program, said in an email to The Narwhal that in each of the last few years higher selenium concentrations have been detected at the international boundary in the reservoir than previously recorded. The agency is building a year-round monitoring program to better understand how selenium concentrations are shifting over time at the international boundary and what factors are contributing to those changes.

Teck and province ‘making decisions for everyone else’: mining researcher

A watershed board within the International Joint Commission would bring together all the groups impacted by mining in the Elk Valley within an impartial and transparent framework to make decisions, Petryshen said. Without it, “it’s mostly Teck and the province making decisions for everyone else,” he added.

The commission would also provide independent experts who could set objective standards and make pollution data accessible, Sandborn said. “Under the current system in British Columbia, scientists can’t get the data they need to analyze and fix the problem.” 

One of the challenges, Sexton, the scientist at the University of Montana, said, is B.C.’s professional reliance system under which Teck is responsible for collecting its own data and monitoring itself.

Teck is selective about the data it releases publicly, Sexton said. “If I want to know what is the volume of contaminated water coming down from the mines in the Elk Valley and how much of that is being treated — I can’t find that information anywhere. It doesn’t exist on any public website or any publicly available document,” she said.

A woman in a blue jacket sits on a concrete structure in front of a lake
Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, said selenium concentrations in the watershed have been increasing for years. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal

According to Teck, the company has the capacity to treat more than 47 million litres of water every day. What’s not clear is what proportion of contaminated water is being treated. The Narwhal has repeatedly asked the company for that information, but Teck has so far not provided it.

Petryshen, who has been investigating the impacts of coal mine expansion in the Elk Valley for Wildsight, believes the volume of water being treated by Teck’s facilities is too low to be effective. Unless Teck can drastically ramp up their water treatment Teck should pause on any expansions, Petryshen said. 

In a statement to The Narwhal, the B.C. Environment Ministry said “in response to data accessibility concerns we have heard, B.C. is developing and intends to launch a new online tool to improve availability and transparency of information and data related to water quality and regulatory activities in the Elk Valley.”

The province is also working with the four Ktunaxa First Nations on a proposal to update the Elk Valley water quality plan, the statement said.

Two men in orange vests walk on a boat out on the water
United States Geological Survey research ecologist Travis Schmidt (left) and field technician Chad Reese, inspect a floating water sample collector on Lake Koocanusa above the Libby Dam, in Libby, Mont. The U.S. Geological Survey is building a year-round selenium monitoring program in Lake Koocanusa. Photo: Jesse Winter / The Narwhal

In the meantime, Richard Janssen, the natural resources department head for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said the data shows selenium is trending up.

“If you continue at this rate, it’s going to have even drastic or more detrimental effects to our cultural resources, the land that we enjoy, the flora and fauna, the birds — the fish is a big one that we have subsistence rights,” he said.

“We are firm on our stance that an [International Joint Commission] is the way to go, where it’s transparent, it brings all stakeholders at the table to come up with a solution that will benefit all to keep these natural resources healthy and pristine for the next generations,” Janssen said.

Does Canada need B.C.’s blessing?

There is a possibility that a reference to the International Joint Commission could go ahead whether or not Canada agrees. A reference to the committee, without the support of both countries, has never been done in the more than 100-year history of the organization, according to an email between federal and provincial officials, obtained through a freedom of information request by Ktunaxa Nation Council. In a letter from Teck to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, a Teck senior executive warned a unilateral reference “would stand as a flagrant jurisdictional overreach.” 

The commission has stated it is prepared to move forward and act on a request from the U.S. without Canada. B.C.’s Minister of Environment and Minister of Mining are “standing in the way,” Sandborn said. “It’s a serious international issue. Is Canada going to be a co-operative problem solver on pollution or not?” 

Meanwhile, Minister Guilbeault is preparing to welcome the world to Montreal for the United Nations biodiversity conference this December. 

“Nature knows no boundaries — not local, not provincial or territorial and not international. We are all in this together,” Guilbeault recently wrote in an op-ed published by The Narwhal. Thousands of international delegates will be attending the 15th annual Convention of Parties (COP15) to discuss the world’s declining biodiversity.

Canada has international legal obligations under the Boundary Waters Treaty and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Petryshen at Wildsight said the federal government is between a rock and a hard place given B.C.’s stance on the issue.

Ultimately, Petryshen believes the best mechanism to address these trans-boundary pollution concerns is through a joint reference with the U.S. to the International Joint Commission. “The [International Joint Commission] is the most transparent and impartial framework in which we can solve this problem.”

Gravelle agrees. “What happened in the valley has been an extreme example of when you do things wrong, for the sake of every dime on the table you get detrimental impacts that are completely irreversible, that are now trickling down the water streams and affecting the livelihood and the inherent right of the original people, which is wrong,” she said.

“At the end of the day, what do we do? We won’t give up, we won’t stop, because enough is enough.”

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Labor’s offshore gas bill labelled ‘a betrayal’ by First Nations activists

Leaders with responsibilities for sea country on way to Canberra to lobby against legislationFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe Albanese government is facing major blowback over changes to its offshore gas bill, which the crossbench and environment groups have labelled “window dressing” that fails to prevent new rules watering down First Nations consultation.Seeking to clear the decks before Easter, the government is expected to reveal tweaks to its proposed vehicle efficiency standards this week. And on Monday Labor introduced amendments to add safeguards to the offshore gas bill after widespread concerns, including from within it own ranks.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

The Albanese government is facing major blowback over changes to its offshore gas bill, which the crossbench and environment groups have labelled “window dressing” that fails to prevent new rules watering down First Nations consultation.Seeking to clear the decks before Easter, the government is expected to reveal tweaks to its proposed vehicle efficiency standards this week. And on Monday Labor introduced amendments to add safeguards to the offshore gas bill after widespread concerns, including from within it own ranks.But the government will probably need Coalition support to pass its offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage bill, as the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, told parliament Labor were “climate con artists” prepared to “work with the climate deniers in the Coalition to fast-track offshore gas”.The OPGGS bill states that approved offshore gas projects are taken to be compliant with environmental laws even if they wouldn’t otherwise be.The bill has been panned by environmental groups, who are concerned it is an override designed to shelter offshore gas from imminent higher environmental standards, and First Nations groups, who warn it will hand power to the resources minister to rewrite regulations on consultation.On Monday the resources minister, Madeleine King, introduced changes requiring the environment minister to agree that changes to consultation are consistent with ecological sustainability development principles.The amendments include a sunset clause so that the override of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is phased out after 12 months.Kirsty Howey, the executive director of Environment Centre NT, said the requirement for new regulations to be consistent with ESD principles was “practically meaningless”.Louise Morris, oil and gas campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said ESD “is a principle, not something that has any legally enforceable powers or structures”.Environment groups have seized on a provision that, even if the resources minister fails to consult the environment minister, the validity of new regulations “will not be affected”, according to the explanatory memorandum. Howey said this meant the new safeguard was “technically pointless [and] nothing more than window dressing”.The government rejects the claim, arguing that if the ministers are at odds projects will need approval both from National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority and under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.A group of First Nations advocates, including Raelene Cooper, Josie Alec and Bruce Pascoe, have written to the Albanese government warning that the bill is a “betrayal”.The group, who include First Nations leaders with responsibilities for sea country, will travel to Canberra on Tuesday to lobby against the bill, which they said was “intended to remove our consultation rights, rights to be heard over developments on our sea Country that affect our cultural heritage and songlines”.On Monday Bandt attempted to suspend standing orders in the House of Representatives, accusing Labor of being “more pro gas than Scott Morrison”.The Greens have offered the government support to pass vehicle efficiency standards, in return for Labor dropping the controversial provisions of the OPGGS bill.Guardian Australia understands the government has confidentially briefed stakeholders on vehicle emissions standards and is preparing to introduce minor amendments focused on light commercial vehicles and utes to bring them in line with US changes.skip past newsletter promotionOur Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionThe climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said: “Obviously the changes being made to the US standards announced this week are of interest to us, and are one of the things we’re considering as we finalise this policy.”Auto industry leaders, including a group who attended a government briefing on the new vehicle efficiency standard last week, have called for tweaks including adding more credits into the scheme, as there are in the US version. An industry source who spoke to Guardian Australia was optimistic the government would ease its proposed NVES in line with these concerns.“Supercredits” for the cleanest of vehicles, “off-cycle credits” for specific green technologies used in cars that are not measured in tailpipe emissions, and “air conditioning credits” for using greener refrigerants, only feature in the least ambitious NVES model being considered but not the government’s preferred “option B”.Earlier on Monday Bandt fired a warning shot on both gas and emissions standards, warning that “Labor has to choose its dancing partner on climate change”In question time King accused the Greens of wanting “to continue a lawyers’ picnic of approvals” going through courts, which she said delayed traditional owners having their say. King insists the bill itself does not change the process of assessments or water down environmental standards.The Labor Environment Action Network, which had lobbied against elements of the original bill, said the amendments were a “workable resolution of a situation that threatened a huge own goal”.The independent MPs Zali Steggall, Zoe Daniel, and Sophie Scamps all criticised the changes as inadequate to fix the original bill.The independent senator David Pocock said: “The Albanese government legislating a backdoor approvals process for offshore gas stinks.”Annika Reynolds, national climate adviser of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the ACF was still “deeply concerned” that the amendments did not address its “fundamental concerns”.

Are You Noise Sensitive? Here's How to Tell

Every person has a different idea of what makes noise “loud,” but there are some things we all can do to turn the volume down a little.

As a mom of three boys, I can barely hear my thoughts against the cacophony of my brood plotting their next Minecraft moves, bartering Pokémon cards, or singing a Weird Al parody. They’re not fighting or wreaking havoc, but life with three energetic school-aged kids is, well, noisy … and I’m noise sensitive.It turns out, I’m in good company. According to a 2023 PLOS One study conducted in the UK, nearly one in five adults have some level of noise sensitivity. And Richard J. Salvi, cofounder and director of the University at Buffalo's Center for Hearing and Deafness, tells me that at least 29 medical conditions are linked to noise sensitivity.People with hyperacusis or misophonia, for example, find everyday sounds unbearable. Other people have a sensory sensitivity (often from sensory processing disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or autism). Still others may suffer from chronic ailments like migraine, fibromyalgia, or mental health issues, where loud sounds exacerbate symptoms.But even without a diagnosable “condition,” repetitive exposure to loud sounds can impact your health. The good news: Once you get a full hearing evaluation to ensure your sensitivity to sound doesn’t reflect early signs of a hearing disorder, myriad tools can make the noise level in your immediate environment more tolerable, or at least block your ability to hear it.Turn Down the VolumeIn the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency treated noise just like any other environmental pollutant. Society was conscientious of the effects of sound as a form of pollution, and the government regulated it as such. Unfortunately, since the Reagan Administration phased out funding for Noise Abatement and Control in 1981, our world has grown exponentially louder. Some of these noises are being piped directly into our ears (thank you, ear pods!), but others are a product of noise pollution.“Everyone has a different threshold of sensitivity to sound. But we know that repeated exposure to sounds above 75 to 85 decibels for more than eight hours a day can damage your auditory system,” says Deanna K. Meinke, an audiologist and audiology professor and researcher at the University of Northern Colorado and codirector of Dangerous Decibels. That’s about the noise output your lawnmower or power tool produces. But the louder the sound, the greater the risk to your hearing—even at shorter durations. In fact, listening at 100 decibels for just 15 minutes (about the sound level of a bulldozer) delivers the same hit to your hearing as seven or eight hours at 85 decibels.“Our ears distort sound when it’s loud,” Meinke says. “So whether you’re noise sensitive or not, turning the volume down is positive for everyone”—a point I tried to drive home when I introduced my boys to my newly downloaded NIOSH Sound Level Meter (SLM), a handy app that allows you to measure your “dose” so you can monitor your progress toward creating a quieter, calmer environment.Salvi tells me that normal speech hovers around 70 decibels. During the first week, SLM measured our mealtime conversations at 80 decibels and the boys’ roughhousing typically hits 90. When the boys were out of school, SLM alerted me that I’d reached 100 percent of my daily dose of loud sounds before 1 pm “Too loud!” I yelled, far above the 90-decibel level. Clearly, I needed more than a meter to preserve my sanity … and my hearing.Do You Hear What I Hear?Decades of research shows that excess noise creates a host of issues from the obvious (hearing loss and sleep problems) to the insidious (heart disease, metabolic disturbances, anxiety and depression). For the 20 to 40 percent of people who are noise sensitive, sounds above a certain decibel trigger the amygdala, the reptilian part of the brain designed to protect us, to fire on all cylinders.“The brain interprets a sound as toxic, and the nervous system reacts with the fight/flight response,” says Jennifer Brout, cofounder of the Sensory Processing and Emotion Regulation Program at Duke University, who suffers from misophonia. It’s not a psychological disorder, but rather a multidisciplinary disorder that ultimately has psychological effects because the affected person is in a constant state of stress.

Think Kate Middleton’s data-privacy fiasco is bad? US hospitals are under cyber-siege

Our medical data could be leaked as easily as the Princess of Wales. Here’s how to protect yourself

Data privacy officials in the United Kingdom are currently investigating a privacy breach that impacted the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, after three hospital workers reportedly sought access to the royal’s private medical information. But her majesty's medical privacy problems are all too familiar for many in the United States, where one in three people were impacted by a health-related data breach last year. The Associated Press reported last month that one cybersecurity analyst counted 46 attacks on hospitals in 2023, compared with 25 in 2022, accounting for an astonishing 133 million US patient records exposed last year. And hackers are making more money per cyberattack, with average payouts jumping from $5,000 in 2018 to $1.5 million last year. “Unless governments do something more meaningful, more significant than they have done to date, it’s inevitable that it’ll get worse,” the analyst said.  The Department of Health and Human Services, however, said total health care hacks climbed to 725 last year, their highest on record. As reported by USA Today, the worst of the hacks (the top 20 in which at least 1 million records were exposed) the vast majority targeted hospital contractors and medical vendors. Around 2.3 million Medicare beneficiaries — along with tens of millions of people in 2,000 companies, government agencies and universities — had data exposed when a Russian ransomware group hacked US government software created by a federal contractor, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Unless governments do something more meaningful, more significant than they have done to date, it’s inevitable that it’ll get worse.” Following a massive cyberattack on a Chicago pediatric hospital on Jan. 31, officials from the US Department of Homeland Security likewise issued a warning: cyberattacks are growing quickly and hospitals are being targeted, along with doctors, medical vendors and other health care companies. More recently, HHS is currently investigating the massive Feb. 21 breach of a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that likely exposed millions of patients’ sensitive data. “Given the unprecedented magnitude of this cyberattack, and in the best interest of patients and health care providers, OCR is initiating an investigation into this incident,” the HHS Office for Civil Rights said in a statement last week. Three things the US could do to protect data privacy Although controversial legislative efforts to ban TikTok have captured much of the nation’s attention, the more effective data-privacy move by Congress came this week as lawmakers in the House unanimously passed a bill barring third-party data brokers from selling your data to the US’ geopolitical adversaries, like Russia and China. As reported by Gizmodo, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (H.R. 7520) cleared the House Wednesday on a 414-0 vote and is now headed for the Senate.  Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes. The bill also bolsters previous efforts by the Federal Trade Commission to shore up sensitive health data — barring brokers from selling or sharing information like your precise geolocation data, genetic data and private emails and texts. RELATED: https://www.salon.com/2024/01/11/abortion-ftc-xmode-privacy-location-tech-data/ The Biden administration and Environmental Protection Agency are also moving to shore up state-level defenses while warning that “disabling cyberattacks” are hitting critical US water and waste systems, along with power grids. The administration has also recently pushed for better privacy-risk labeling on consumer smart-home devices and tech. What you can do to bolster your data privacy 1. Verify a breach If you’d like to check whether one of your email addresses has been compromised in a data breach or hack, you can visit haveibeenpwned.com and enter your email address in the site’s search bar. The site’s owner and creator, security expert Troy Hunt, has provided this free service since 2013, and the site can verify your email address against a database of nearly 8 billion compromised accounts. 2. Use credible, open source privacy tools When you finally get tired of having to keep track of (and routinely reset) dozens of passwords, consider installing open-source password manager Bitwarden in your browser. Usually, free privacy and cybersecurity tools are inadvisable, but Bitwarden is the exception. Offering the strongest free-tier service among competitors and compatible with nearly any browser, Bitwarden has nearly no learning curve and offers convenient instructions on importing your list of saved passwords. 3. Use decoy accounts and contaminate your data Any time you’re entering your name into a website to sign up for a new service or place an order, use two things: a fake identity and email account (to the maximum extent allowable by law), and contaminated data. The fake identity bit is self-explanatory. Contaminating the data is simple: While entering your information into any online form, put the name of the website or service you’re using into the field set aside for a middle name. For instance, if I start receiving junk mail and spam from random companies and it’s addressed to “Rae Amazon Hodge,” I’ll know exactly what company sold me out.

What will shift to zero-emission trucks cost? $1 trillion for charging alone, study says

The study, sponsored by the freight truck industry, adds to concerns over government mandates. But government officials say the move away from fossil fuels will have economic benefits.

A short-trip electric heavy truck gets charged at Total Transportation Services Inc. in Wilmington. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) Fossil-fuel burning trucks spew alarming amounts of greenhouse gases, dangerous nitrogen oxides, lung-clogging particulate matter and a toxic stew of other pollutants.Getting rid of them will be costly — nearly $1 trillion, according to an industry study released Tuesday.Sponsored by the freight-hauling truck fleet industry, it concludes that charging infrastructure for a nationwide fleet of 100% electric trucks — from delivery trucks to big rigs — will cost $622 billion.Add to that an additional $370 billion on electric utilities to upgrade or install electric substations, overhead and underground lines, transformers, poles and fixtures to supply truck chargers. Electricity providers “would need to spend nearly the equivalent of what was spent on the entire system during the past 15 years,” the report says, pegging the past cost at $450 billion.Not covered in the report: the expense of the trucks themselves. Electric big rigs today cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each, or three to four times more than a diesel truck. California is spending billions in subsidies to make those trucks more affordable.The motor freight industry says the highly detailed report adds to the concern that government mandates are moving too fast.“It could put the supply chain at risk,” said Jim Mullen, chief strategy officer of the National Motor Freight Traffic Assn., a study sponsor. “It’ll make COVID look real tame if we don’t do this right.”Industry alarmism? Hard to say, in part because policymakers have not produced such comprehensive dollar-cost studies of their own. A 2023 California Department of Transportation report estimates that building a charging network with 475 to 525 chargers to serve electric trucks on major highway corridors would cost $10 billion to $15 billion, not including electric upgrade costs.The California Air Resources Board estimates that operating costs could be 22% to 33% lower for electric trucks than diesel or gasoline by 2030. (Generally, forecasts of future electric rates and fuel prices range widely depending on the source and the assumptions.)“California and the federal government are making unprecedented investments to prepare for a zero-emissions future that will bring multiple cost-saving benefits in reduced fuel and maintenance costs for fleet operators,” said Steven Cliff, the air board’s executive officer. “Cleaner air will also mean reduced health costs for Californians, and a future with fewer costly impacts from climate change.”State and federal officials have cited economic benefits of moving away from fossil fuel trucking: new jobs and industries created, reduction of climate risk, and, according to the air board, $26.5 billion in health-cost savings through 2050. The climate and pollution problems are real, and carry enormous social, economic and health costs. But the dollar costs of minimizing those problems will be borne by taxpayers, utility ratepayers, truck makers, fleet owners, shippers and retailers, and will be reflected in the price of consumer goods.Freight-hauling is a high-volume, low-margin endeavor. The cost of the transition matched with aggressive timelines imposed by government mandate could put enough freight-haulers out of business to disrupt freight traffic, the industry says. The study was conducted by Roland Berger, an international consulting company based in Munich, Germany. The report fills a data vacuum on electric truck transition costs, said Wilfried Aulbur, senior partner at the firm. “We didn’t see a comprehensive, systemic study to look at what it means to decarbonize transportation sectors,” he said. The industry is committed to cleaning up its vehicles, he said. “I don’t think anyone [involved in the study] is saying ‘let’s screw the next generation.’” But “we need to have a fact-based discussion around some of the limitations and some of the timelines involved.”More than 6 million on-site chargers and about 175,000 on-route chargers would be needed nationwide, the report said, and it listed “hidden or unforeseen costs”: site-specific issues like the need for conduits and clearances; the scale and costs of wiring and electrical components; utility upgrades to handle the increased load; and backup solutions in case vehicles are unable to charge at a specific site.California has assumed the national lead on decarbonizing transportation. Ten states have signed on to follow its regulatory lead in trucking. Under California mandate, by 2035, 100% of most two-axle trucks must be zero-emission; by 2039, big rigs with day cabs; by 2042, big rigs with sleeper cabs.That mandate covers fleets with more than 50 vehicles or annual revenue over $50 million; state, local and federal government fleets; and trucks that haul freight in and out of seaports.The most immediate concern of fleet operators: so-called drayage trucks that typically run shipping containers or bulk cargo back and forth from ports to rail yards and distribution centers, racking up a few dozen miles a day or so. (A small number travel hundreds of miles to their destinations.)The state is cracking down on drayage trucks first. Last April, the air resources board ruled that no fossil fuel trucks purchased after Jan. 1, 2024, would be allowed to enter a seaport in California. Operators of fossil fuel trucks bought before that date can get into ports until those trucks reach 18 years of age or 800,000 miles, whichever comes first. By 2035, only zero-emission trucks will be allowed inside.Drayage trucks were pinpointed for at least two reasons: Their noxious emissions disproportionately affect the health of people who live near seaports, who tend to live in low-income households. Also, because most drayage trucks travel short routes, there’s less need for high-powered truck chargers along the highway, easing the transition. The idea is that drayage trucks can use less powerful chargers at their home bases and fill up more cheaply at those slow chargers overnight.Yet, few electric drayage trucks have been sold thus far, and a major build-out of charger systems at drayage depots or at the ports is required. Startups such as Forum Mobility, WattEV and Voltera Power, and established companies including Schneider Electric and ABN, are building or leasing charging stations for freight trucks.There’s a long way to go to accommodate the state mandate, and heavy-duty truck fast chargers can cost more than $100,000 each.The trucks themselves are enormously expensive, and for now anyway, hard to find and buy. A typical diesel truck costs about $120,000. In recent months manufactures of electric big rigs raised their prices to as much as $450,000 to $500,000. Even those are scarce — many buyers are on months-long waiting lists.Drayage owners caught a break last December, when the air resources board announced it would delay enforcement of drayage rules until it receives permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to do so, under provisions of the federal Clean Air Act.Meantime, the state faces a lawsuit filed by the California Trucking Assn. last year. It claims that federal law bars California from enforcing zero-emission truck mandates on vehicles registered outside the state that cross the border into California.What are the truck fleets seeking? Among other things: Longer timelines to use biofuels in diesel engines that are in no way zero-emission, but do emit less pollution and fewer greenhouse gases than diesel trucks; rules that allow conversion of diesel engines to burn hydrogen fuel, which releases no greenhouse gas but does emit nitrogen oxide pollution, albeit far less than diesel fuel; a commitment to vehicle and charger subsidies; and a faster build-out of expensive utility substations needed to dispatch enough electricity to high-power truck chargers. Thus far, California regulators have drawn a firm stance on the timelines they’ve established.Truck stop owners have concerns too. Lisa Mullings is chief executive at Natso, an industry group that represents truck stops and travel centers and is another study sponsor. She said Natso members are preparing for the energy transition but want more help from utilities in setting up microgrids — self-contained energy generators using solar or wind power that bypass the electric grid — so they can get more control over electricity prices. “Travel centers have found business case impediments could be overcome if they could manage their own electricity [in a way] that didn’t require them to sell electricity to drivers at exorbitant costs just to break even,” Mullings said.Nobody said the switch away from fossil fuels would be easy. Newsletter Toward a more sustainable California Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation — and the solution. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

The government wants to fast-track approvals of large infrastructure projects – that’s bad news for NZ’s biodiversity

New Zealand’s plants and animals are globally unique and underpin primary production and tourism. The government’s fast-tracking proposal threatens to erode the natural capital the economy relies on.

Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to be of national or regional significance. The Fast-track Approvals Bill, introduced under urgency on March 7, would take precedence over several current environmental laws and give ministers the power to skirt existing approval processes. Leaders of ten scientific societies that conduct biodiversity research in Aotearoa New Zealand, representing thousands of members (ourselves included), have called on the government to slow down the pace of reform. They warn that decision-making criteria are weighted towards development, not environmental protection or sustainable resource use, and undermine New Zealand’s obligations to protect the country’s unique and threatened biodiversity. New Zealand’s economy relies on the environment in many ways. One study estimated New Zealand’s land-based ecosystem services contributed NZ$57 billion to human welfare in 2012 (27% of the country’s GDP). This includes services such as crop pollination by insects, erosion control by plants and flood regulation by wetlands. The fast-track bill requires expert panels to provide recommendations to the relevant ministers within six months of a project being referred to them. This time frame is wholly unsuitable to making proper assessments of environmental impacts, including those on plants and animals, as surveys will likely be conducted at inappropriate times of the year. No time for on-site ecological assessments A key requirement of assessing impacts on biodiversity is to undertake new ecological surveys of the project site and surrounds. Such surveys identify the threatened species and ecosystems found on the site, catalogue where they are found and estimate their population numbers. This information is then used to determine how those species and ecosystems could be affected, and whether the project could be modified to avoid or mitigate these impacts. There are currently no directions in the bill for the expert panel to commission new ecological surveys. However, even if panels could do this, the six-month time frame precludes robust ecological surveys. Read more: Without a better plan, New Zealand risks sleepwalking into a biodiversity extinction crisis Thorough ecological assessments involve conducting surveys at multiple times throughout the year because certain species will only be present during particular seasons. For instance, reptiles, frogs, invertebrates and migratory species of birds are usually only detectable during warmer times of the year. Surveys for them during winter are unlikely to find these species. Even certain plants, such as orchids that can lie dormant underground as a tuber, have life cycles that make them difficult to detect. Many grasses are best identified when they are in flower. In many cases, restricting consenting to just six months means expert panels would have to make their assessments based only on existing ecological information. This is known as a “desktop assessment”. While a useful first step, these are not a replacement for on-the-ground surveys. This is particularly the case in New Zealand, where we have limited data on many species and for many parts of the country. For example, we don’t have sufficient data on most of New Zealand’s reptiles. Evidence-based decisions are critical Apart from the proposed fast-tracking of resource consents, the government has already repealed the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act. Both were enacted only last year as part of a new resource management regime. The government also plans to replace the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, which provides direction to local authorities on how to manage activities that affect the health of lakes and rivers. None of the recent and proposed changes to environmental legislation are responsive to the dual biodiversity and climate crises. They are also inconsistent with the government’s own stated goal of evidence-based decision making. Read more: Restoring ecosystems to boost biodiversity is an urgent priority – our ‘Eco-index’ can guide the way New Zealand’s plants, animals, fungi and ecosystems are globally unique. They underpin key economic sectors, especially primary production and tourism. But they are also threatened with extinction. More than 75% of New Zealand’s native species of reptile, bird, bat and freshwater fish are either threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened. New Zealand has international obligations to conserve biodiversity under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was signed in 1993. In 2022, New Zealand joined almost 200 member nations in adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which commits countries to protect 30% of land and ocean globally by 2030. Read more: Despite its green image, NZ has world's highest proportion of species at risk Much of New Zealand’s most at-risk indigenous biodiversity is found on private land and may be subject to detrimental impacts from land use and development pressures. The fast-tracking agenda threatens to undermine New Zealand’s progress on biodiversity protection and other key environmental issues. It erodes rather than sustains the natural capital on which the economy depends. New Zealand’s scientific societies are urging the coalition government to allow adequate time for appropriate parliamentary select committee processes and thorough public consultation on the bill. They call for a comprehensive legislative and policy framework, centred on the protection of environmental values and sustainable resource management, to ensure development occurs in ways that don’t further degrade natural capital. The authors thank Dr Fleur Maseyk for her comments and discussions on this piece. Tim Curran receives funding from the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Fire and Emergency New Zealand, the Hellaby Grasslands Trust, Marlborough District Council, Brian Mason Scientific and Technical Trust, and the Lincoln University Argyle Trust. Tim is the Submissions Coordinator and a past President of the New Zealand Ecological Society, and coordinated and helped draft the open letter to the government referred to in this article.Jo Monks receives funding from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and Auckland Zoological Park. She is Vice President of the New Zealand Ecological Society and a council member of the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand. Jo is a previous employee of the New Zealand Department of Conservation. Jo signed the open letter to government referred to in this article on behalf of the New Zealand Ecological Society.

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