Notable case, Trail, British Columbia, Canada
Trail Smelter
A lead and zinc smelter in British Columbia, near the US border. Damage from its fumes to farms in Washington State led to the arbitration that founded the principle of liability for transboundary pollution.
At a glance
- Status
- Under assessment
- Activity
- since 1896
- Media
- air, soil, sediment, surface water
- Kind of site
- smelter
Contaminants
Status
Under assessment
The smelter is operating. Since 2003 there has been litigation brought by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation over slag accumulated in Lake Roosevelt, downstream on the Columbia River. The present state of any cleanup has not been checked.
Story
The smelter, built in 1895 and running from 1896, was operated by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (Cominco), which merged with Teck in 2001. In 1916 it emitted 4,700 tons of sulphur a month and by 1930, 10,000; in 1926 the stack was raised to 409 feet. From 1925 farmers across the border reported burned leaves, stunted growth and less productive soil, and in 1927 they filed a formal petition.
In 1931 the International Joint Commission proposed $350,000 in compensation, judged insufficient. A 1935 convention set up an arbitral tribunal, which awarded a further $78,000 in 1938 and closed the dispute in 1941, holding that a state must not cause significant harm to another through pollution.
Timeline
- 1896The smelter starts operating.
- 1927Petition by Washington State farmers.
- 1935Convention establishing the arbitral tribunal.
- 1941Final arbitration decision.
- 2003The Colville Tribes sue over slag in Lake Roosevelt.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Festuca rubraRed fescueEvidence: field
- Arabidopsis halleriHaller's rockcressEvidence: field
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Helianthus annuusSunflowerEvidence: field
- Noccaea caerulescensAlpine pennycressEvidence: field
Fungi
- Rhizophagus irregularisEvidence: greenhouse
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomEvidence: laboratory
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
- Oidiodendron maiusEvidence: laboratory
- Saccharomyces cerevisiaeBaker's yeast, brewer's yeastEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
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Libby Asbestos Site
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Notable case, Kellogg, United States
Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex
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Phytoremediation
Notable case, Richland, United States
Hanford Site
306 km
- Plutonium
- Uranium
- Tritium
- Strontium-90
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Trial, Washington, United States
Bellingham, WSDOT oil-contaminated soil (Battelle trial)
351 km
- Petroleum hydrocarbons
Mycoremediation
Sources
- Trail Smelter dispute, Wikipedia, 2026
- Trail, British Columbia (coordinates), Wikipedia, 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.