Appeals court rules against Teck Cominco

A U.S. appeals court ruled July 3 that a lawsuit can proceed against Canadian mining company Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. over the release of hazardous waste in Canada that reached the United States.

Teck Cominco, the world's biggest zinc producer, had argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because U.S. environmental laws don't apply to a Canadian company that dumped waste in Canada.

The lawsuit was filed by two members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state who claimed Teck should be responsible for waste that flowed into the U.S. along the Upper Columbia River in northeast Washington state from the company's smelter in Trail, British Columbia.

The San Francisco-based Court of Appeals rejected Vancouver-based Teck's claim that it wasn't responsible for the cleanup because the release of hazardous waste in the U.S. is a domestic issue.

"The passive movement and migration of hazardous substances by mother nature is still a 'release'" under U.S. environmental laws, Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould opined on behalf of the court.

"We reject Teck's argument that it is not liable under (federal regulation) § 9607(a)(3) because it did not arrange for disposal of hazardous substances 'by any other party or entity,'" Gould wrote.

Teck will investigate contamination

In June Teck Cominco agreed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate contamination in the Upper Columbia River.

From that effort, Teck Cominco and the EPA aim to produce a science-based report on the ecological and human health conditions of the Columbia River from the Canadian border to the Grand Coulee dam, an area encompassing Lake Roosevelt.

The investigation is also the initial step in the cleanup process, according to EPA officials.

Teck Cominco said at the time that it has always wanted to address the public's concerns about the level of hazardous waste in the river and in Lake Roosevelt.

A large portion of the zinc and lead concentrates treated in the past 15 years at Teck Cominco's Trail smelter comes from the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska and the remainder comes from other mines in Canada, the United States and South America.

The lawsuit alleged the Trail smelter discharged as much as 145,000 tons of waste a year from 1906 to 1995 that polluted U.S. waters.

The case is Joseph A. Pakootas and Donald R. Michel of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, State of Washington, v. Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.