Tester Wants Crackdown On Canada’s Upstream Selenium Pollution

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester Wednesday asked the U.S. State Department to put pressure on an international commission and the Canadian government to stem pollution flowing into northwest Montana from British Columbia coal mines.

Tester penned a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asking him to get the International Joint Commission involved in the decades-long issue of selenium leaching from coal mines in British Columbia’s Elk Valley into the transboundary Lake Koocanusa watershed. Selenium is a naturally occurring element, but at the high levels documented in the lake, it can impact fish reproduction.

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