After a meeting in Ottawa between President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the two leaders announced they would work together on pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed.

A March 24 press release from the White House stated that the United States and Canada intend to reach an agreement, in principle, as early as this summer in order to reduce and mitigate the impacts of water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai watershed.

The governments will work in partnership with Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples with the goal of protecting the people and species that depend on the vital river system, the release stated.

“Over the coming months, the United States and Canadian governments and Tribes and First Nations on both sides of the border will identify specific steps to protect transboundary waters with the goal of reducing and mitigating the water pollution in the Kootenai watershed,” the White House wrote.

State Senator Jon Tester, D-Montana, wrote that he has consistently lobbied multiple administrations to refer to the International Joint Commission – an independent body that can be convened at the request of both the United States and Canada to make decisions regarding transboundary pollution.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has continually found increased levels of contamination, including selenium, nitrates, sedimentation and other impairments associated with Canadian coal mining in the watershed. In 2019 researchers at the EPA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found high levels of selenium in fish eggs and tissues, a press release from Tester wrote.

“State and federal agencies have found elevated selenium levels in fish as far downstream as Idaho, and Idaho has declared the Kootenai River an impaired stream,” Tester wrote.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, and the Ktunaxa Tribal First Nation in British Columbia have expressed consistent concerns regarding the Elk-Kootenai watershed.

In a Nov. 23, 2022 letter to Biden and Trudeau the CSKT and Ktunaxa Tribes pushed the Canadian and U.S. governments to jointly refer the issue to the International Joint Commission (IJC).

“We await your timely responses. We have waited 10 years already, and cannot wait 10, or even one year more before this issue is meaningfully addressed. The time to act is now,” the Ktunaxa wrote to the western leaders.