U.S. Water News Online
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Most of the lead, cadmium and other heavy metals pollution sampled from Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind the Grand Coulee Dam, came from a smelter in British Columbia, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is testing international law by demanding that Teck Cominco Ltd., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, pay to clean up decades of pollution on the U.S. side of the border.
Teck Cominco has refused to submit to EPA authority, saying the agency has no power over a Canadian company operating in Canada. The company's lead and zinc smelter is located about 10 miles north of border along the Columbia River.
The State Department has initiated talks with Canadian officials, hoping to settle the dispute.
Most of the dumping stopped in the mid-1990s. Teck Cominco has questioned whether its smelter is responsible for heavy metals pollution in Lake Roosevelt.
USGS study results "indicate that the liquid effluent from the Teck Cominco smelter is the primary contributor of the large concentrations found in sediment samples from the middle and lower reaches of Lake Roosevelt," said Stephen Cox, lead author of the survey report.
Dave Godlewski, a spokesman for Teck Cominco in Spokane, said that while the metals pollution can impact animals and micro-organisms, the concentrations are not high enough to endanger human health.
"I think it important to distinguish these two very different types of standards given the high degree of concern that such reports have on the people who live near the lake," Godlewski said.
Teck Cominco is continuing its offer to spend $13 million to study the pollution, and hopes to reach an agreement with U.S. regulators, he said. The EPA has rejected the offer, saying it does not meet U.S. scientific standards.
The USGS study was conducted in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, some of whose members are suing Teck Cominco to force the cleanup.
The study shows pollution of the lake exceeds tribal standards for cleanup, the tribes said in a news release. It also shows that particles of slag, a byproduct of the smelter process, were breaking down and not inert, the release said.
Elevated concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, and zinc were found throughout much of the sediment. All samples exceeded tribal sediment-quality standards for cadmium, lead, and zinc. More than 70 percent of the samples exceeded the standards for mercury, arsenic, and copper.
The EPA has ordered the Canadian company to start paying for studies and an eventual cleanup of millions of tons of slag and heavy metals.
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