Risk vs reward: is coal mining really worth it?
By Lethbridge Herald on July 29, 2025.
Simon Wiebe
For the Herald
B.C. has made mistakes that have polluted water all the way from the Elk Valley to Oregon, with thousands of kilometers of rivers and lakes containing pollution able to be traced back to the Elk Valley coal mines.Â
Despite global efforts to phase out coal, it remains a cash cow, with new proposals for mines such as Alberta’s own Grassy Mountain project continuing to make headlines, but beneath their economic promises lies an ecological and financial cost that all Albertans should be aware of.
Coal mining pollutants come in many forms, but one in particular is cause for concern. Selenium — essential to life in small amounts — quickly becomes toxic at higher doses, especially in aquatic ecosystems where it can build up in the food chain.Â
High selenium levels lead to major reproductive failures in aquatic predators like trout, which absorb selenium from their prey. Contaminated fish do not always appear sick, but often have difficulty reproducing, with a federal investigation related to former coal miner Teck Resource’s $60 million dollar Fisheries Act fine in 2016 estimating that more than half of fish in the Upper Fording River failed to be born or survive to adulthood due to selenium pollution. Â
But B.C. isn’t the only province struggling with coal mining pollution. Just east of the B.C.-Alberta border, in the Crowsnest Pass, sits the shuttered Tent Mountain mine, with waste rock piles sitting untouched since the mine’s closure in 1983.Â
In a pond directly below the waste piles, researchers have recorded selenium levels up to 90 times higher than Alberta’s aquatic life safety guidelines recommend. Waters from that pond flow into Crowsnest Lake and eventually to the Old Man River, reaching the water supply of Lethbridge and other southeast Albertan communities.
Recent studies found that lake trout in Crowsnest Lake contain selenium in concentrations 10 times higher than lake trout in an unimpacted lake and 2-4 times higher than Alberta’s health guidelines.Â
Even back in 2019, 85% of juvenile fish examined in the Crowsnest River showed signs of disease linked to either selenium poisoning or whirling disease, the symptoms of which appear similar, which makes sense given both affliction’s tendency to affect fish’s brains and nervous systems.
Perhaps the worst part of all is that water quality in the lake still meets legal standards. This disconnect between what’s considered ‘safe’ levels of water pollution on paper, and the reality of poisoned fish should ring alarm bells.
Selenium pollution from B.C.’s southeast coal mines is so severe that billions of dollars have been sunk into treatment. And yet, a Wildsight-commissioned independent report found over 80% of mining-produced selenium still flowed downstream in 2022.Â
This same report estimated that implementing the coal mine’s water treatment plan would cost at least $6.4 billion, and still would not be enough to achieve natural selenium levels downstream.
In Alberta, the Grassy Mountain coal project threatens to repeat this same story. Rejected in 2021 for ecological and watershed damage potential, the Grassy Mountain Coal project made news recently when it rose from the dead, receiving exploration permits for their site in the Crowsnest Pass. Proposals like this promise jobs and economic benefits, but B.C.’s track record again offers a cautionary footnote. Independent research has shown northeast B.C. coal mines delivered only 64 per cent of their projected jobs, and just 34per cent of promised tax revenue.Â
This June, coal mining giant Elk Valley Resources cut 140 jobs, the latest in a series of cost cutting measures, further highlighting the risks of mine employment. Meanwhile, taxpayers are liable to be left holding the bag for expensive water treatment that could be required for decades – or perhaps centuries.
Nature can only absorb so much damage before it starts to break down, devastating some of the most precious and beautiful ecosystems in the world. If Albertans care about the future of their water, fish, and downstream communities, they must be smarter than British Columbians and learn from our mistakes.
If the Grassy Mountain coal project moves forward, it must have rigorous independent oversight, robust financial securities, and long-term environmental safeguards from day one. Better yet, we should ask: is this worth it?
Simon Wiebe is a former mineral exploration geologist and the current Mining Policy and Impacts Researcher for Wildsight, a conservation organization that works locally, regionally and globally to protect biodiversity and encourage sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and Rocky Mountain regions.
18-17
Excellent summary of coal mining negative effect on the environment. I will add that Teck (previous operator of Elk Valley coal mines) is spending close to one million dollars to find another potable water well for Fernie BC since their existing well has shown signs of selenium contamination. There are several lawsuits against Teck regarding selenium contamination which may result in fines exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars. No amount of money will remove selenium in the watershed. I hope that taxpayers won’t be on hook for any cleanup as Teck is a multi billion dollar corporation which recognized the selenium issues was not going away and sold their coal mines. I’m not sure which company, new owners Glencore or Teck or both have responsibility for cleanup and ongoing litigation related to the selenium contamination.
i bet grassy mtn would be a good thing, if we spun it just so: amazing, high paying jobs, massive tax revenues that will shore up our trust fund into the zillions, and, even better, we enhance our waters with natural selenium, saving us having to source it via expensive multivitamins and brazil nuts. a win win win venture.