U.S. Indigenous leaders from the Pacific Northwest say they won't give up trying to convince Canada's federal government to agree to a bilateral investigation of toxic mining runoff from the B.C. Interior.
Representatives from several U.S. tribes were in D.C. Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with officials from the White House, the State Department and the Department of the Interior, as well as with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"I'm just afraid of studying this to death. Our river is dying," said Gary Aitken Jr., vice-president of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, after a series of meetings Wednesday with U.S. officials. Such an investigation, known in treaty parlance as a joint reference, requires both countries to agree. The U.S. has long pledged its support for the idea, but Canada has been dragging its heels for years.
In their joint statement Friday, Biden and Trudeau said Canada and the U.S. would work toward "an agreement in principle by this summer to reduce and mitigate the impacts of water pollution in the Elk-Kootenay watershed." The company's strategy includes the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan, developed with help from Indigenous stakeholders, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state government in Montana, the B.C. government and Ottawa.
"Everything's still on the table," Barquin said. "We'll continue to pressure both the U.S. and Canadian governments to accept an IJC reference."
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