Teck Cominco Tagged with $8.25M in Superfund Smelter Costs (1)

Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., the operator of a Canadian smelter that dumped millions of tons of toxic sludge into the Columbia River for nearly a century, must pay $8.25 million in damages to a Washington state Indian tribe, a federal appeals court held Sept. 14.

The ruling is the latest chapter in a decades-long litigation saga over Teck’s liability for the hazardous waste in Superfund cost recovery suits brought by the state of Washington and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

The tribe’s method for calculating its costs in cleaning up the pollution was reasonable, and showed Teck was ...