Cross-border mining battle heats up By Mark Lowey
Kudos for Conoco, turmoil for Teck in Washington state
Call it a tale of two companies.
A mining firm from B.C. is battling federal U.S. environmental officials over a waste legacy in Washington state, while a Calgary oil company has won a rare honour for cleaning an old gold mine in the same state.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has slapped the Vancouver-based company with an enforcement order and is considering hauling the firm before a U.S. court if it doesn’t comply.
The U.S. federal agency wants Teck Cominco to fund a $10-million US study of slag, or smelting waste, in Lake Roosevelt in Washington state. The waste is discharged into the Columbia River from the firm’s lead and zinc smelter in Trail, B.C.
Court gives U.S. power over states on clean air By Laurie Asseo, Bloomberg News
The federal government can override some state decisions on enforcing the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Supreme Court said in ruling the government could block a power generator at an Alaskan zinc mine owned by Teck Cominco Ltd.
The court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had power to halt the construction on grounds Alaska officials didn't properly require Teck Cominco to use the "best available" pollution-control equipment. Alaska argued the clean-air law didn't allow the EPA to issue such an order. Vancouver-based Teck Cominco is the world's biggest zinc producer.