Loading ...Even with the U.S.-Canada border restricting travel for at least another month, the international exchange of mining waste leaching from British Columbia into a transboundary watershed touching Montana and Idaho has continued unmitigated, intensifying concerns to such a degree that in the span of 10 days in June a rare confluence of global entities has paid heed to an environmental calamity that’s been brewing for more than three decades.
In a deluge of letters, stakeholders on both sides of the border recently articulated their concerns to top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, whose office has been inundated with requests for federal intervention on the forested, river-braided boundary between B.C. and Montana. It’s along that boundary that the the Elk and Kootenai rivers converge in an impoundment formed by Libby Dam, called Lake Koocanusa, where rising levels of the mining byproduct selenium is resulting in adverse consequences for water quality, fish species and other aquatic life, the Flathead Beacon reported.