Teck submits remediation plan for groundwater tainted by Trail smelter

VANCOUVER – Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B) has submitted a remediation plan to Environment Canada to deal with toxins that seeped into the groundwater decades ago from its smelter in Trail, B.C.

Company environmental health manager Richard Deane says the plan calls for a treatment plant to remove heavy metals like arsenic and lead that have tainted the groundwater under the plant and an aquifer in east Trail.

The plume of tainted water runs under the Columbia River but Deane says monitoring shows there are only a few localized spots where the toxins are showing up in the river.

He says testing shows fish in the river are safe and the company is confident that the treatment plant — which should be fully implemented in five years — will render the groundwater safe within federal guidelines.

The problem was discovered by Teck in 2001 and is the remnant of operations conducted in Trail for more than a century.

In September, Teck admitted in a U.S. court that slag from the smelter has polluted the Columbia River in Washington state for more than a century.