Decision to allow exploratory drilling near Crowsnest Pass prompts questions about selenium

Recent approval for exploratory drilling at the Grassy Mountain coal mine has brought a lot of public debate, specifically over the potential for selenium.

Selenium has been the focus of a lot of public debate with the recent approval by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to allow exploratory drilling at the Grassy Mountain coal mine near the Crowsnest Pass.

The biggest concern raised by opponents is the potential impact of selenium on the environment, wildlife and people and land downstream.

CTV News spoke with a toxicologist and retired biologist about selenium, the ways of removing it and what it could actually mean for the environment.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

“Selenium is a bio-cumulative substance,” said Mandy Olsgard, an environmental toxicologist and risk assessor.

She says its a naturally occurring element found in rocks, soils and can be released into the environment through multiple ways including coal mining.

Selenium has been found in water in Alberta and British Columbia.

While low amounts may not pose harm, Olsgard says higher amounts can be toxic.

“There are ways to remove it, and I would say the technologies being used in Elk Valley are the best available technologies,” she told CTV news.

Elk Valley Resources, formerly Tech Resources Ltd., currently uses saturated rock fill and active water treatment.

“Saturated rock fill can remove to about three micrograms per litre, active water treatment can to about 10 micrograms per litre. The issue is the Alberta Surface Water Quality guideline to protect fish and aquatic life is one to two micrograms per litre,” Olsgard explained.

She says those treatments could protect water for humans and agriculture.

“But there’s no technology that can remove enough selenium to protect a receiving aquatic environment,” she said.

Olsgard says high levels of selenium can cause developmental affects to fish, such as curved spines and a reduced population.

At the beginning of June, Alberta’s ministry of environment and protected areas issued a fish consumption advisory for Crowsnest Lake.

Each year, the province conducts netting of fish from selected lakes across Alberta to inform recreational fish management.

In 2024, 105 brown trout, lake trout and mountain whitefish were analyzed for mercury and trace metals.

A preliminary assessment of these results showed that consumption of those fish should be limited due to selenium levels, according to the ministry.

“We don’t have to go into the Elk Valley in B.C. to see this, we have our own Elk Valley in the MacLeod River drainage in the old coal branch, where water quality has been impacted by a century or more of coal mining to the point where 92 per cent of the native trout population is missing because of selenium,” said retired biologist Lorne Fitch.

Fitch spent 50 years reviewing environmental impacts on mines in the Eastern Slopes with four other biologists.

He found that all of them had either acute landslide, significant erosion and water contamination.

“If you don’t engineer your development in such a way to be cognitive of that, things will fail – and they did,” Fitch said. “If you don’t have a predictive quality about what the weather events will be, and those were available, things will fail.”

Alberta has higher selenium concentration in drinking water standard than B.C.

Alberta is listed at 50 micrograms per litre, whereas B.C. has a standard two micrograms per litre.

Olsgard says it will take decades to exceed those in places like Lethbridge and further downstream.

“It might not be exceeding thresholds, it might still be safe for crops and food production, but the perception around that and a contaminated water source… I don’t know think anyone has really considered that,” she said.

The Alberta government has done a number of studies showing the extremely concerning impact of selenium on rivers, fish and the environment.

While the reports have been made public, the province will not allow us or any other media to speak with the researcher behind the studies.