Letters have been sent to six Alberta ministries responsible for public health, water quality, irrigation requesting immediate action to advise Albertans, including Piikani First Nation, against consuming selenium-poisoned fish from the Crowsnest and Oldman River systems.
The alarming degree of selenium toxicity among trout and whitefish was revealed in the report Analysis of Selenium Tissue Concentrations in Multiple Fish Species of the Oldman River by aquatic biologist Lorne Fitch and Mount Royal University Biology Chair Jon Mee.
This report published in August follows the Alberta government’s own 2025 analysis showing all tested fish from Crowsnest Lake were unfit for human consumption. The cause was specifically identified as the continuing selenium runoff from the Tent Mountain coal mine owned by the Australian company Evolve Power.
Following is the full text of the letter delivered September 8 2026.
From Crowsnest Headwaters
To:
Hon. Grant Hunter, Minister of Environment, Epa.minister@gov.ab.ca
Hon. Todd Loewen, Minister of Forestry and Parks, Fp.minister@gov.ab.ca
Hon. Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals, Minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Hon. Tara Sawyer, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, AGRIC.minister@gov.ab.ca
CC:
Hon. Justin Wright, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, PPHS.minister@gov.ab.ca
Hon. Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Indigenous Relations, ir.ministeroffice@gov.ab.ca
Hon. Mandy Gull-Masty, Minister of Indigenous Services, mandy.gull-masty@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries, DFO.Minister-Ministre.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Crowsnest Headwaters is taking the opportunity to collectively contact you and your Ministries since all share responsibility and accountability on the issue of selenium in the Oldman watershed from legacy coal mines.
Crowsnest Headwaters unites forward-looking local residents in defending the source waters of the Saskatchewan River System, which nourishes the Canadian Prairies with a resource vital to families, farms, and food processors from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson Bay.
Crowsnest Headwaters has undertaken to identify the movement of selenium from legacy coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass downstream through the Oldman River and below the Oldman Dam. The results are documented in the attached report, Analysis of Selenium Tissue Concentrations In Multiple Fish Species of the Oldman River.
A brief summary of the report contents is that:
Thirty-eight fish, from five species and representative of the fish assemblage of the Oldman River downstream of the Oldman dam, were analyzed for selenium concentrations in muscle tissue. Of the sport fish species (rainbow trout, brown trout, and mountain whitefish), 33 per cent of the fish exceeded Alberta’s threshold for the protection of aquatic life. This also has implications for people who consume these fish. Compared with fish in Alberta waterbodies not impacted by coal mining, the mean selenium species concentrations for Oldman River fish suggests a broader selenium problem for the Oldman ecosystem, both upstream and downstream of the Oldman dam.
We trust you all agree that this information is concerning. Therefore, here are questions to each of your respective Ministries:
Environment and Protected Areas
It is obvious from your own department’s research that selenium from the Tent Mountain legacy coal mine has compromised trout in Crowsnest Lake. In addition, information contained in the Grassy Mountain environmental impact assessment tendered by Benga identifies similar problems in Gold and Blairmore creeks from the Grassy Mountain legacy coal mine.
In the light of that science, why hasn’t your department undertaken a comprehensive selenium sampling program for the entire watershed? When can we see some timely movement on this urgent matter of health and indigenous rights?
When will your department undertake comprehensive, systematic monitoring of selenium concentrations in fish through the length of the Crowsnest River, the Oldman Reservoir, and the Oldman River downstream of the dam, with appropriate natural baseline sampling of the Castle and Upper Oldman rivers?
Forestry and Parks
Why hasn’t there been an appropriate warning in the “Alberta Guide to Sportfishing Regulations” on the risks of selenium in fish and appropriate advice on consumption. Clearly, this is a human health issue and also one that affects residents of the Piikani Nation who routinely harvest food from this ancestral source of nutrition.
For people resident of the Piikani Nation what efforts has your department taken, or could take, to advise them of the health risks of consuming fish from Crowsnest Lake and the Oldman River downstream of the dam, both now scientifically showing levels of toxic selenium to fish and humans?
Energy and Minerals
We would hope these alarming results of selenium contamination that now extend into the Oldman River from upstream legacy coal mines would provide a pause on the enthusiasm for new coal mines, especially in the Crowsnest Pass. Crowsnest Headwaters makes note that there are no triggers or limits in the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan for contaminants related to coal mining. In addition your department’s Coal Mine Wastewater Guidelines make no mention of selenium. When will your department introduce a discharge standard, a binding regulation for selenium that matches the empirically derived limits for the protection of aquatic life? Lastly, when will your department, in concert with other responsible agencies begin to deal with selenium pollution from legacy coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass?
Agriculture and Irrigation
Now that your department recognizes the movement of selenium from legacy coal mines into the Oldman River and Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District diversion, what is your perspective on the risks to food production and the impacts to southern Alberta’s food processing industry? Does the prospect of new coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass, coupled with selenium pollution from legacy mines indicate that these risks are too great for new developments to be endorsed by your department?
Crowsnest Headwaters looks forward to a timely, fulsome response to our concerns and questions.
Sincerely yours,
David Thomas
Crowsnest Headwaters