For many years, tribes in Southeast Alaska have been concerned with nearby mining projects across the Canadian border in British Columbia. The headwaters of three major rivers – the Taku near Juneau, the Stikine near Wrangell, and the Unuk near Ketchikan — are in B.C. but flow into Southeast watersheds.
Louie Wagner lives in Metlakatla near the mouth of the Unuk River. He’s concerned about the Eskay Creek Mine, a large gold and silver mine up a Unuk tributary.
“There (are) already two mines working and the third one which could be the second to third largest mine in the world,” Wagner said. “And where they’re going to put their retaining wall for their mining tailings is pretty scary.”
Eskay Creek Mine was an underground mine producing gold from 1994-2008. The mine’s new owner, Skeena Resources, wants to start again using open-pit extraction that it estimates will produce 2.8 million of ounces of gold and 80 million ounces of silver over a dozen years. The company plans to build a tailings dam to hold millions of tons of mine waste — forever.
Subsistence users, like Wagner, believe the Unuk River’s ecosystem is too vulnerable.
“During the spring and summer the water is so shallow, it really can’t handle any pollution,” he said. “Doggone, we lose all our wildlife. It’ll be lost forever.”
Wagner is part of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), which represents 17 tribes in Southeast and has been fighting the mine’s development and others like it. This month, the commission requested a pause in mining operations, fearing the mine’s waste could contaminate the river. Their worries stem from past events. Ten years ago, a tailings dam broke at B.C.’s Mount Polley mine, spilling millions of gallons of mine waste into a nearby river that supported Southeast Alaska salmon runs. The B.C. government declined to sanction the mining company over the spill.
According to the commission, the B.C. government hasn’t heard their concerns. The commission has been working with attorneys from the nonprofit environmental group Earthjustice. Mae Manupipatpong is one of the attorneys.
“Really the crux of this case is just to ensure that these SEITC member tribes who could be potentially impacted by this project have a voice in the process and are not sidelined just because they are on the other side of an arbitrarily drawn border,” Manupipatpong said.
In an email, David Karn with B.C.’s Ministry of the Environment declined to comment writing that “it would be inappropriate for government to provide any further commentary at this time,” because the proceedings are ongoing.
Earthjustice is looking to a Washington D.C. based human rights organization to help out. They submitted a 47-page request to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to pause the Eskay mine. The request calls the mine’s impacts “serious” and “a foreseeable, imminent, and significant threat.”
Manupipatpong said B.C. law requires informed consent from Alaska’s nearby tribes because their ancestors have historically used the Unuk watershed.
“We’re hoping that the commission can pressure B.C. and Canada to do the right thing,” she said. “Of course, as an international body, they can’t force them to, but we are attempting to use this mechanism just as another way to get B.C. to listen.”
The legality of the transboundary mines has long been controversial. Six years ago, the tribal commission filed a 215-page petition with the Human Rights Commission asking the group to investigate transboundary mines. Then, two years later, they filed another petition focused on six mines near the Taku and Unuk rivers. The Human Rights Commission agreed to look into the matter and found last year that the transboundary mines could violate the rights of Southeast tribes. This February, the tribes submitted another request to the commission asking for a formal hearing. Now, Southeast tribes want the Eskay Creek Mine paused.
The state of Alaska has put the issue on the back burner. During former Governor Bill Walker’s administration, Lt. Governor Byron Mallot was tasked with seeking better communication with B.C. In 2015, Alaska and B.C. signed a memorandum of understanding to increase the state’s role in transboundary mine decisions. However, those discussions haven’t continued – at least not publicly.
A few years ago, the tribes conducted a study documenting their ancestral use of the watershed. It was financed by international conservation group, Re: Wild. Since then, Re:wild has been backing the tribes’ efforts. Re: wild works in over 80 countries and touts well-known actor Leonardo Dicaprio as a founder. Nina Hadley is also with the organization.
“We’re particularly interested in protecting the Alaska – British Columbia transboundary region because it’s among North America’s top ecological hotspots,” Hadley said.
Re:wild credits the region’s Indigenous populations for safeguarding biodiversity for thousands of years. Hadley said that’s one they support “deep consultation” between Canada and the downriver tribes.
“What I mean by that is a formal dialogue between the tribes and the B.C. government that aims to build trust, that aims to build respect, and aims to build that shared responsibility. That kind of consultation is just not happening.”
Time is limited — Skeena Resources completed a feasibility study last year and is waiting on the government to release an environmental assessment. BC already has an agreement with the Canadian tribe, Tahltan Central Government, which owns the territory near the mine.
