Piikani Nation withholding Grassy Mountain support pending new scientific assessment of selenium pollution

Chief Troy Knowlton says Band Council withholding extension of support for reopening of derelict Grassy Mountain coal mine pending results of research

Piikani Nation elected chief Troy Knowlton told a reconciliation circle of indigenous and non-indigenous people August 30 that the band council is sponsoring its own professional scientific assessments of selenium contamination of fish harvested from the Oldman River.

Soil, riparian vegetation, air and water will also be tested for accumulated selenium poisoning from decades of active coal mining and continuing leaching from abandoned sites including Tent Mountain and Grassy Mountain.

Knowlton said the research is in response to a government of Alberta report last May that all trout sampled in Crowsnest Lake were poisoned by selenium, rendering them unfit for human consumption. So far, there has been no scientific evidence concerning the state of fish in the downstream Crowsnest and Oldman Rivers. The same environment department study said the mortality and deformity of Crowsnest/Oldman fish generally thought to be caused by whirling disease may in fact be indications of selenium poisoning.

The government of Alberta promised further sampling of downstream fish but the summer has passed without any such field work. The Piikani initiative will fill that knowledge void.

The Australian mine promoter Hancock Prospecting (aka Northback Resources, Benga Mining, Riversdale Resources) had controversially secured the support of the previous Piikani Band Council with promises of money and jobs, but that endorsement expired and has not been renewed by the current council.

Knowlton acknowledged that his council did support Northback’s recently granted application for more exploration, “but that was in hope that the drilling program would show that it is not a viable initiative for the continued spending of dollars.”

Knowlton’s remarks and his revelation about the current Piikani-ordered scientific research marked a significant shift away from the band’s perceived support for the project, a perception falsely propagated by the Australian company.

“We have not offered our support for the operation of Grassy Mountain. The previous council did, and the agreement expired December 31, 2021. Since then, they have asked me a number of times, ‘Will you sign this? All we need to do is sign this and we will keep going.’ I said we are not going to sign anything until we get a better picture of what’s going on.

“Here’s what we are doing: The Piikani Nation is conducting our own tests, our own selenium tests of contamination of water, contamination of the ground, we are testing the air, we are testing the riparian, we are testing the fish.

“The fish will be the biggest indicator of the pollution of the river on Piikani Nation. We are looking at five species of fish: the bottom dwelling burbot and suckers, the whitefish, which are a real indicator species because of what they eat, the trout, and the pike.

“We should have that baseline data by the end of September. That will give us an idea of what’s in that river.

“We will believe our own data. That data will give us a clear direction on where we need to go,” said Knowlton.

Video clips from Piikani Nation reconciliation circle including revelation by Chief Troy Knowlton that the band is awaiting results of its own scientific research into selenium pollution of reserve land, water, air and fish.

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