Coal: If Trout Could Talk

Selenium, antimony, cobalt, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, strontium, thallium, uranium and many others are released for decades by the weathering of the shattered caprock overburden.

By Lorne Fitch, P. Biol.

In the coal saga there’s more to mine than the mountain. Despite protestations of due diligence and highest engineering standards, every coal mine in the Eastern Slopes has had spectacular environmental failures and most of them on a regular basis. This is a function of topography, engineering failures and an inability to incorporate the effects of weather events into mine design. If ever there was a lesson about future mines, all one has to do is review past mines.

Pit wall collapses, settling pond failures, conveyance system upsets and mine road washouts are the most visible evidence of problems. But it is the liberation of a witches brew of toxic chemicals that creates legacy issues. Selenium, antimony, cobalt, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, strontium, thallium, uranium and many others are released for decades by the weathering of the shattered caprock overburden.

Hidden in the labyrinth of the Benga environmental impact assessment report for the proposed Grassy Mountain mine is a cryptic note on the analysis of selenium in the flesh of trout from Gold and Blairmore creeks. Selenium concentrations in the trout were significantly higher than those adopted by both BC and Alberta to protect fish populations from collapse. This is despite the fact selenium concentrations in these streams was lower than guidelines. This never came up in the Joint Review Panel hearing although there was evidence enough to damn the project.

Contamination of fish isn’t restricted to the Crowsnest watershed. Evidence from other watersheds with coal strip mines show similar results for elevated selenium concentrations in fish, including the coal industry’s much promoted reclaimed mine pit lakes.

This isn’t restricted to fish. Bighorn sheep living on reclaimed coal mines in the Coal Branch of Alberta have selenium concentrations in their tissue higher than any other place in North America.

Native cutthroat trout used to exist in East Crowsnest Creek and the headwaters of Crowsnest Creek, beneath the Tent Mountain coal mine. Very high selenium concentrations from the mine spoil, coupled with excessive sediment loadings to these streams is implicated in trout disappearance.

The selenium guideline values adopted by past BC and Alberta governments were not proposed by armchair eco-terrorists. They were developed after multiple fish populations collapsed after exceeding these values. They are a warning – there is a limit to the amount of selenium pollution fish populations can absorb before they disappear.

Trout aren’t just the quarry for a few anglers. They speak to us on the impacts of coal mining. Trout form our distant early warning indicators and are the bellwethers of danger. To ignore their message is to ignore our peril.

A fundamental message from the selenium contamination of trout is we need to look beyond what is found in the water, to how it bioaccumulates up the food chain, to levels of significant health concern. It wouldn’t hurt to remember that we are at the top of the food chain.

Yes, these are some of the things to mine in our deliberations over coal mining in the Eastern Slopes. We might also reflect on the misinformation and distortion from congenital corporate liars. There are municipal councillors with their eyes firmly fixed in the rear view mirror of time and coated in the fairy dust of illusionary economic benefits. Overseeing this is an “arms length” regulator manipulated by political puppet masters.

Arrayed against this are the clearly articulated wishes of the majority of Albertans who are passionate about a mine-free Eastern Slopes. Alberta recently went through a review of coal policy by an independent panel. This panel was responsible for the largest public engagement process in Alberta‘s history to define a path forward for coal. Their recommendations have yet to be implemented.

Lastly, we have recently witnessed, from the minister of Energy, Brian Jean, a muddled, barely coherent “clarification” of coal policy to the Alberta Energy Regulator. The letter was issued in the midst of an ongoing AER hearing into a coal exploration application and it opens a question of whether Jean was trying to fetter that process.

Jean’s retreat from the wishes of Albertans effectively winds the clock back, reinstates exploration permits, opens up new exploration, including construction of new roads that will erode for years. Nothing else has changed, including the continual leaching of selenium into East Slope rivers, no timely, effective reclamation of coal exploration roads and Albertan’s frustration with the intransigence and lack of spine of the UCP government.

Utah Phillips was a folk singer and philosopher who once said, “The Earth is not dying—it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.” If it isn’t evident by now, the names with the UCP government are writ large on this public policy failure to protect the Eastern Slopes.

Lorne Fitch is a Professional Biologist, a retired Fish and Wildlife Biologist and a past Adjunct Professor with the University of Calgary. He is the author of Streams of Consequence: Dispatches From the Conservation World and Travels Up the Creek: A Biologist’s Search for a Paddle.