[troutman]

Coal mines hurt trout!

https://cheknews.ca/largest-ever-fis...overy-1246646/

Led by a partnership between the Canadian government and the Ktunaxa Nation, the $58-million cleanup of Elk Valley in the Kootenay region will come from a fine imposed on Teck Coal Limited, the company responsible for most of the area’s coal mining. The $60-million fine against Teck was turned over to the federal government’s environmental damages fund.

Mining operations released harmful substances, primarily selenium and calcite, into the Elk Valley watershed, killing fish and causing lasting damage to their habitat.

The population of threatened westslope cutthroat trout in a river below the mine dropped by 93 per cent between 2017 and 2019. The following year, 90 per cent of the species’ adult trout in a 60-km stretch of the upper Fording River were gone.

Despite billions invested since 2013 to mitigate the damage, the Elk Valley environmental crisis remains dire. Water treatment facilities can now treat 77.5 million litres per day and remove 95 to 99 per cent of selenium from the water. But it’s not enough. A report says at least $6.4 billion is needed to reverse rising selenium levels in affected waterways.