The International Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed Study Board has been formally established by the International Joint Commission, which is the first step in the process of an investigation into transboundary water pollution in the Kootenay watershed.
The IJC’s Directive to the Study Board principal functions include convening experts and knowledge holders to conduct transparent and coordinated transboundary data and knowledge sharing. The Study Board will also share, synthesize and analyze data and information to support a common understanding of pollution within the watershed and its impacts on people and species.
Over the next two years, the Study Board will report and make recommendations on the issues identified in the IJC Reference. Earlier this year, both Canada and the United States, in partnership with the Ktunaxa Nation, referred the issue of transboundary water pollution in the Kootenay watershed to the IJC.
The Study Board will be co-chaired by Oliver Brandes, an economist and lawyer who is a technical advisor to the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, and Tom Bansak, a freshwater ecologist who is the assistant director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station, which is associated with the University of Montana.
The Study Board, which is to be supported by technical working groups, is expected to submit an interim report in the fall of 2025 and a final report September 2026.
The IJC is an entity borne out of a century old Boundary Waters treaty between Canada and the United States that investigates transboundary water issues and recommends non-binding solutions.
This is a historic moment for Canada-United States transboundary relations as it represents the first time that Indigenous Peoples have played a key role in the development of a reference to the IJC. Building on this, the IJC has ensured that Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous knowledge will be a crucial part of the Study Board and its work, including through membership on the Study Board.
A public webinar and comment period last month encouraged interested parties and individuals to share data/information with the IJC and to relay their interest in participating in study activities such as advisory groups and technical committees.
More than twenty submissions were received and are now being considered by the Study Board, according to the IJC.
The Elk River rises in the Canadian Rockies and flows into Lake Koocanusa (also known as Koocanusa Reservoir), an impoundment of the Kootenay/Kootenai River, which straddles the Montana/B.C. border. The Kootenay/Kootenai River then flows through the states of Montana and Idaho, and through transboundary Ktunaxa lands, on its way back to the province of British Columbia, where it empties into the Columbia River.
