U.S. Environmental Law May Affect Businesses in Canada

An important decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington (Pakootas v. Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd.) has potentially extended the reach of U.S. environmental laws to businesses in Canada that cause pollution in the United States—even though the firm’s initial discharge of pollutants occurred in Canada.

Teck Cominco, a Canadian corporation, owns and operates a smelter in British Columbia, about 16 km north of the Canada-U.S. border. For most of the 20th century, Teck Cominco allegedly discharged into the Columbia River in Canada pollutants, which flowed downstream into the United States and eventually contaminated the Upper Columbia River and Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake. In December 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Teck Cominco to investigate the full extent to which the "Upper Columbia River Site," as the contaminated area was called, had been contaminated by Teck Cominco’s pollutants from Canada.