U.S. Top Court May Enter Pollution Fight

The case deals with the smelter at Trail, B.C., where slag had been dumped for 100 years -- until 1995 -- into the Upper Columbia River that went into Lake Roosevelt in Washington state. Joseph Pakootas and Donald Michel, native Americans living near Lake Roosevelt who launched the suit, are suing Teck Cominco to investigate not only the potential contamination but also to pay for a massive cleanup. Teck Cominco has already agreed to launch a probe of the environmental impact of the slag, but has not yet made any commitment for clean-up. "The natural and inevitable consequence of Teck Cominco's discharge of hazardous substances into the river in Canada was that they would be released into the environment in the United States," said Mr. Pakootas and Mr. Michel. Yesterday, the top court in the United States signalled its interest in the case when it took the unusual step of seeking the legal views of the U.S. Justice Department about a new appeal launched by the Harper government and Vancouver's Teck Cominco Ltd. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=fce21026-c59f-405d-b29c-6c9ef090ac2e&k=96203 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 8, 2007]

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