A Canadian Threat to Alaskan Fishing -

At least 10 underground and open-pit copper and gold mining projects in British Columbia are up and running, in advanced exploration or in review to be approved. They generate billions of tons of toxic mine tailings stored behind massive dams, creating an ecological hazard at the headwaters of Alaska’s major salmon rivers which straddle the border with Canada. In August 2014, a tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine failed. A  huge volume of water , laden with sediment and heavy metals, washed away Hazeltine Creek and dumped into Quesnel Lake, a key salmon spawning ground of the Fraser River. Alaskans have no say in their approval. Which is why fishermen, Alaska native tribes, local municipalities, tourism businesses, our congressional delegation and thousands of individual Alaska residents all for the State Department to refer this issue to the International Joint Commission.