TECK FINED 3.4 MILLION FOR POLLUTION

Teck Resource’s Trail smelter fined $3.4 million on pollution charges

On Monday, Feb. 29th, in Rossland, B.C. a judge fined Teck Resource’s Trail smelter 3.4 million dollars for 13 accidental toxic spills they released into the Columbia river from November 2013 thru February 2015.  Teck was fined for over a dozen violations under the Environmental Management Acts and for failing to comply with its environmental permit.

Richard Deane, Teck’s manager of public affairs, stated; “These incidents we do not view as acceptable.”  He went on to say that most of the fine will go into a designated environmental conservation initiative for the lower Columbia region.

Unfortunately the toxins released in Teck’s 13 discharges , mentioned above, crossed the Washington state border 3 miles downriver. The majority of their discharges polluted the U.S. Portion of the Columbia River, as well as contaminating our sediment, soil, and aquatic life. Yet the Upper Columbia River communities, nor the State of Washington, will ever receive any of that 3.4 million dollars to conduct environmental studies on the areas the spills actually impacted.

– Jamie Paparich