Alaska Congressional Delegation Asks for Transboundary Protection
In late August, Senator Lisa Murkowski toured the Stikine River with researchers, recalling her visits there as a child. “It’s critical that we keep this vital watershed healthy for the sake of all those who rely on it—both people, and wildlife,” Murkowski said.
Photo Credit: Office of US Senator Lisa Murkowski
In an August 13 letter, the Alaska Congressional delegation of Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Representative Mary Peltola urged President Joe Biden to formally protect transboundary rivers that flow from Canada into Alaska.
Prompted by Toxic Release
“For over a decade, the Alaska Congressional delegation has expressed grave concerns about the longstanding impacts and future threats of abandoned, developing, and operating mine projects located in British Columbia near the Canadian headwaters of Southeast Alaska’s rivers,” the letter states. “Under three different presidents, our delegation has pushed for the Department of State to secure binding protections and financial assurances for the transboundary Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers that flow from BC into Southeast Alaska and the Tongass National Forest. Without unified action from the executive branch, Canadian mining activity in this region will increasingly endanger US communities and resources, such as salmon, without any mechanism for recourse or compensation.”
While all three recognize the importance of the critical minerals mined in Canada to the US and allied national security, as well as an important resource development, the delegation says the drawbacks deserve more attention.
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“Our concerns were heightened when we learned of the June 24 heap leach pad failure at Eagle Gold Mine near the Village of Mayo in the Yukon, which Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation called ‘the region’s most recent and potentially catastrophic mining failure,’” the letter states.
“Eagle Mine has only been operating for five years, and, by all indications, the heap leach pad failure was caused by poor design and negligence. We are only now beginning to understand the true scale of the environmental impacts, and each update is more discouraging than the last,” the letter continues.
The delegation notes in the letter that the Government of Yukon’s Department of Environment reported on August 2 that samples collected from Haggart Creek downstream of the failure showed cyanide levels “modestly above aquatic life guidelines.” And that same day, Victoria Gold employees found dead fish in Haggart Creek.
US Representative Mary Peltola out on the water.
Photo Credit: Office of US Representative Mary Peltola
Haggart Creek flows into the McQuesten River, where Chinook salmon migrate to spawn; the McQuesten flows into the Stewart River, which flows into the Yukon River.
The delegation asked the Biden administration to “publicly and immediately support” two calls for action; the first requesting that Canada “clean up its abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine, which has been polluting international waters for more than sixty-six years.”
The Tulsequah Chief Mine in Canada, 20 miles from the Alaska border near Juneau, extracted zinc, copper, and lead in the ‘50s. The mine, closed since 1957, has since leaked rusty, acidic waste into a major salmon-producing tributary of the Taku River.
The second call to action requests that the administration “establish an international framework to prevent and resolve disputes in these transboundary waters.”
Delegation members say they have been working on establishing such protections for years, including securing federally appropriated money for water quality monitoring of transboundary rivers, urging funding restrictions for Canadian projects and visiting and writing to elected leaders in BC about the issue. Now, with the enactment of the 2024 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, the delegation notes that it may be possible to make progress.
The letter asks for “immediate steps in pursuit of binding protections, financial assurances, and strong transboundary governance for the Alaska-BC Taku, Stikine, and Unuk Rivers.”
In August, Murkowski made a trip up the Stikine River, one of the rivers the delegation is seeking protection for.
“The Stikine is a crucial habitat for all five species of salmon and many other animals that play a critical role in the local ecosystems,” says Murkowski in a video posted to social media after the trip. “I spent my time on the river talking with researchers and individuals whose families have relied on the river for generations.”
