EPA battles Canadian company over pollution [View All]

[ConcernedCanuk]

. . "Spokane, Wash. — It is not often that the United States serves as a dumping ground for a foreign factory, but that is what the EPA says is happening in the remote northeastern corner of Washington.

The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to force a Canadian company to clean up decades of toxic smelter waste that have flowed down the Columbia River into Lake Roosevelt."

/snip/

"This month, the U.S. agency formally warned Teck Cominco that it should agree to the agency's demands or prepare to be sued. The company replied that the U.S. effort could backfire, with U.S. companies finding themselves in legal trouble with Canada over cross-border pollution.

/snip/

The company replied that the U.S. effort could backfire, with U.S. companies finding themselves in legal trouble with Canada over cross-border pollution.

. . open another can of worms ?? why not - here we go again ?

However the article goes on to say:

"The only other time the United States has collected from a Canada company for cross-border pollution involved the same Trail-based smelter operation.

In 1938, an international tribunal ruled that British Columbia and Cominco Ltd. were responsible for crop damage to Northport-area farmers from smelter emissions. The U.S. government eventually collected $428,000.

/snip/

almost 1/2 a mil in '38 - that's serious coin !!
AND just when BC and the USA were getting so "friendly" ?