Teck Coal fined $221,000 for unauthorized waste disposals in BC

Teck Resources' (TSX: TECK.B) former coal unit has been handed fines totalling approximately $221,000 for nearly 30 cases of environmental breaches in southeastern British Columbia over a two-year period.

On August 8, the B.C. Ministry of Environment issued two fines to Teck Coal Ltd. — now operating as Elk Valley Resources and under new owner Glencore —  for unauthorized waste disposals at its Elkview operations near Sparwood, BC, between 2021-2022.

The larger of the two fines was $168,750, encompassing 27 separate instances of waste discharge that were made without the province's authorization. In total, more than 109,000 litres of waste were released into the environment.

However, the Ministry found these wastes had little to no actual impact to the environment because they were "limited to the heavily disturbed area in and around the [Elkview operations] pit and coal processing plant."

While the second penalty of $52,000 is smaller, it only covered two incidents, and so the fine was larger per incident as the mining waste did get to nearby creeks that support animal life, the Ministry's report added.

In one of the incidences, the contamination exceeded the province's guidelines for sulphide and selenium, which can cause deformities in fish and health issues for humans, the Ministry said.

In a statement to CBC News on Monday, Teck Coal said that the investigations were undertaken to determine the root causes of each unintended spill, and that repairs have been completed to prevent any future incidents.

"Spills were cleaned up and subsequent monitoring results were within normal ranges for the areas where the spills occurred," a Teck Coal spokesperson said.

According to the Ministry's own investigations, the majority of the 29 instances of unauthorized waste discharge were caused by equipment failures.