Impacts of coal mining: Science matters

By Lethbridge Herald on January 30, 2026.

Editor:

A recent Crowsnest Pass Herald editorial delivered a counter to the envisioned worth and merit of Corb Lund’s petition aimed to stop new coal mining on Alberta’s Eastern Slopes.

The editorial included these sentences: Science matters. Environmental monitoring matters.

I concur. I couldn’t agree more. 

My belief in science, enhanced by reading well-documented scientific studies conveying the impacts of coal mining on water, reinforces my firm conviction that coal mining has degraded, continues to degrade, and any new mining will further degrade Alberta’s headwaters. 

Dr. Bill Donahue, an aquatic scientist and former Executive Director of Science for the Environmental Monitoring and Science Division of Alberta Environment and Parks, has reported that issue-defining studies reveal, in addition to historic coal mining concerns, contemporary selenium contamination downstream from recent coal mining operations.

I believe southwestern Alberta’s greatest economic worth and potential lies in its ability to capitalize on the long-term wealth brought by its rare, increasingly valuable, and stunning aesthetic appeal. 

I view this wealth in natural capital as a priceless and perpetual source of health and prosperity, … if it’s protected and managed properly.

I believe short-term industrial projects that damage the Oldman Watershed’s intrinsic beauty, its rivers and streams, and its quality-of-life values, have the very real potential to prevent this geographic region from realizing the natural and free-flowing rewards brought by its exquisite scenery and watershed worth.

I believe, too, that no less than 178,000 Albertans share Corb Lund’s protect-the-Rockies vision, and will rally around and endorse his petition.

David McIntyre, Crowsnest Pass