Dive summary:
- Teck Resources in Vancouver, recently admitted that between 1896 and 1995, waste and hazardous materials, namely slag, the by-product of processing zinc, which is filled with arsenic, mercury, lead and a whole array of other leftover metals, were dumped into local waterways and have now collected in Washington state.
- When Teck American, the U.S. subsidiary of Teck Resources, cleaned up Black Sand Beach two years ago, they hauled away 10,031 tons of slag, however, according to Colville Confederated Tribes, the group initiating the lawsuit against Teck up to 159,835 tons have been dumped directly into the river.
- Teck will not talk about the amount of pollution released, or the damage created by the release, but Washington calculates the damage could reach up to $1 billion in damages, the state wants Teck to be held responsible for the damage but is unsure of how to proceed penalizing a company that operates outside of U.S. borders.
From the article:
There used to be a beach in Washington state called Black Sand Beach.
Only it wasn't sand that lined the banks of the Columbia River. It was slag, a pebbly waste laden with arsenic, mercury, lead and an alphabet soup of other metals left over from processing zinc at a smelter upstream, across the border in British Columbia.
The black sand has been hauled away, and on the eve of a lawsuit against smelter operator Teck Resources Ltd. for environmental damage caused by pollution from its plant in Trail, B.C., the Vancouver-based mining giant has admitted that effluent from the smelter has polluted the Columbia River in Washington state for more than a century. ...
