Teck to Face Trial For Smelt Contamination of Native Reservation

The metal giant Teck Resources will go to trial over lead-zinc smelt river contamination on a native tribe’s Northeast Washington reservation after a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that the cultural loss to fish and wildlife count as damages.

The panel reversed a partial summary judgment opinion from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, where Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian ruled Teck wasn’t on the hook for the tribe’s proposed cultural losses which totaled to $653 million.

Natural resource trustees can recover interim lost-use value under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the ...