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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
12-11
Beautifully said.
Thank you for this Mr. McIntyre. Given the GoA continues to gaslight and misinform over this issue, it is notable that the federal government has participated in the process. Federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Julie Dabrusin, essentially rubber-stamped Northback’s recent request as noted in the following excerpt from Northback to Minister Dabrusin dated December 8, 2025:
“Northback will not be proceeding with the Project that was reviewed by the JRP and is currently subject to the ongoing federal assessment under CEAA 2012. Northback has publicly announced that it no longer intends on developing the Project as previously contemplated and will instead be pursuing a significantly revised mine project that:
• will shrink the mine’s footprint by around 40% compared to what was previously proposed;
• will reduce the output of steelmaking coal to 2.5 million tonnes each year, from the 4.5 million tonnes previously proposed; and
• will incorporate a new, multi-tier water management strategy to avoid potential selenium contamination and reduce water consumption.
In the JRP report, the most significant adverse environmental effect of the Project falling within federal jurisdiction was to westslope cutthroat trout (“WSCT”) and their habitat in the Gold Creek watershed. WSCT are listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act (“SARA”) and in May 2019, the Government of Canada published an updated Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Alberta Populations of Westslope Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi) in Canada 2019 (the “2019 Recovery Strategy”). The Project that was reviewed by the JRP would have resulted in impacts to 758 m2 of aquatic critical habitat in Gold Creek and 18,868 m2 of riparian critical habitat in the Gold Creek watershed.5 Northback has determined that because it will be relocating major infrastructure outside of the Gold Creek watershed, Northback anticipates it will no longer require a Fisheries Act authorization or SARA permit associated with WSCT and the Gold Creek watershed. Accordingly, as it pertains to matters within federal jurisdiction, the Project as previously proposed will no longer be carried out and the federal assessment should be terminated.”
On December 19, 2025, Minister Dabrusin replied in part as follows:
“Minister of the Environment,
Climate Change, and Nature
Ministre de l’Environnement, du
Changement climatique et de la Nature
Ottawa, Canada MA 0H3
Bradley Johnston
Chief Operating Officer
Northback Holdings Corporation
1910, 525 8th Ave SW
Calgary, AB T2P 1G1
Brad Johnston:
Thank you for your letter of December 8, 2025 advising that Benga Mining
Limited, now Northback Holdings Corporation, will not be carrying out the
Grassy Mountain Coal Project (the project), as proposed in 2015. This
letter provides you with notification that I have terminated the
environmental assessment for the project in accordance with section 62 of
the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012.”
Serious questions arise:
Where is Northback’s proof for the supposed avoidance of selenium water contamination?
What scientific evidence supports the thesis that a reduced mine footprint is any less impactful?
How familiar is Minister Dabrusin with this file, given the rather short interval between the receipt of Northback’s communication and her reply?
Moreover, it is already known that the quality of coal in the Eastern Slopes is substandard:
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/08/10/World-Wont-Buy-Second-Rate-Alberta-Coal/
Finally, on January 20, 2026, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health issued the following statement:
“Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality.”
https://unu.edu/inweh/news/world-enters-era-of-global-water-bankruptcy
There are numerous things that should be done.
Rubber-stamping the Grassy Mountain project IS NOT one of them.