CSKT urge EPA to honor commitments to tribes
EPA pressed to select remedy for CFAC that permanently protects Flathead River, native trout
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News from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
FLATHEAD RESERVATION — The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes sent a letter to the U.S. EPA on Tuesday, Oct. 8, voicing significant concerns about EPA’s preferred remedy to address toxic waste at the Columbia Falls superfund site. EPA’s proposed solution would build a slurry wall to contain the contamination on site. This plan would not treat or remove the contamination, but rather would leave it on site in the floodplain, allowing contamination in the aquifer to continue leaching into the Flathead River for decades. CSKT is urging the U.S. EPA to keep their commitments to tribes by working with CSKT to ensure the cleanup plan for Glencore’s Columbia Falls Aluminum Corporation Plant (CFAC) will adequately protect the Flathead River, the fish that depend on those waters, and the Tribes’ reserved fishing rights.
The letter asks the EPA to consult with the Tribes and evaluate proposed solutions to see which ones will meet Montana water quality standards for fish and aquatic life and protect the Tribes’ fishing and fish consumption rights in the Flathead River before making a formal decision on a remedy for the CFAC site.
“The EPA has made many commitments to consult with Tribes and to honor Tribes’ treaty rights, including a specific commitment to engage in meaningful consultation with CSKT on the cleanup remedy for CFAC,” said Michael Dolson, Chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “Now it’s time for the EPA to turn those words into action and to work with the Tribes to ensure that the toxic waste at the CFAC site will not continue to harm the river, fish, and our treaty rights into the future,” stated Dolson.
In the Hellgate Treaty of 1855, the Tribes reserved the right to hunt, fish, and gather in our usual and accustomed places throughout the Tribes’ aboriginal territory, including the landscape negatively affected by the CFAC.
“We are concerned about the toxic contaminants that Glencore left in the ground at the site, and how the cyanide, fluoride, and heavy metals impact the Flathead River and native trout. We have treaty-reserved rights to hunt and fish in the waters and lands around the CFAC plant,” said Rich Janssen Jr., MBA, Natural Resources Department Head for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “But if there are not enough fish to harvest, or if the fish have bioaccumulated too many toxins to be safe for human consumption, our treaty-reserved rights are meaningless. EPA must select a cleanup plan for CFAC that will permanently protect the Flathead River and the fish that live there, and ensure the river and fish survive and thrive for future generations,” Janssen continued.
The Flathead River is important habitat for the endangered bull trout and threatened westslope cutthroat trout, two fish species of particular cultural importance to the Tribes. Cold water fisheries, and in particular salmonids, including bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout, are very sensitive to toxicity. CSKT’s letter asks the EPA to delay a decision on the remedy for the CFAC site until the agency conducts more studies on the impacts of the pollution from the aluminum smelting plant on the fisheries in the Flathead River and works with CSKT to determine which remedies will adequately address that pollution and protect the river and fisheries.
Legacy pollutants from CFAC are leaching into groundwater and, by EPA’s own science, are undisputedly flowing downgradient and discharging into surface waters of the Flathead River and Cedar Creek. Investigations have proven that unnatural discharges of cyanide, arsenic, fluoride, nickel, selenium, benzo[a]pyrene, manganese, sodium, zinc, and copper, among others are being discharged to surface waters.
The EPA has identified toxic CFAC pollutants discharging to the Flathead River but has not looked closely at the effect of those discharges on sensitive aquatic life, including on the breeding grounds and essential habitat for fish, nor have they looked closely at whether CFAC pollutants can bioaccumulate in fish tissue and negatively impact fish consumption.
Pollution from Glencore’s Columbia Falls site is not the only pollution Glencore is responsible for in Montana waters. Glencore, the company that owns CFAC, also now owns five coal mines that are polluting Montana waters. The five open-pit coal mines, located just across the border with Canada in the Elk Valley in Southeast British Columbia, are actively leaching pollutants into the Kootenai River and Koocanusa Reservoir in Montana. One of the pollutants from the mines has reached toxic levels in fish in Koocanusa Reservoir, raising alarms for fish health and continued fish populations and also impacting CSKT’s treaty rights in the watershed. Glencore purchased the mines from Teck Coal for $7B in July of this year.
“Glencore is now the single biggest threat to our treaty-reserved fishing rights,” said Tom McDonald, Vice Chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “The EPA has been a great partner working to get Canada to address the pollution from Glencore’s mines in the Elk Valley. We expect EPA to do the same here to address pollution from Glencore’s superfund site in the Flathead Basin, particularly since EPA actually has the authority here to protect our treaty-reserved rights.”
