The International Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed Study Board (Study Board) has announced the postponement of the public release of its draft final report.

The postponement comes as the Study Board works to ensure that its final report, including key findings and recommendations, reflects the breadth of technical analysis and input received throughout the study process.

The draft final report was originally expected to be released on September 30. The revised release for the report is now planned for late November 2026, which will initiate a one-month comment period.

The revised timeline will allow for a longer public comment period than was previously possible – something that the public has requested from the Study Board during previous comment periods.

The new timeline is a result of the Study Board obtaining an extension to the final deadline for its final report and recommendations to the International Joint Commission (IJC) until February 5, 2027.

Established by the IJC, the Study Board is tasked with gathering and analysing existing data on water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai/y watershed and assessing their implications for communities, ecosystems, and water resources.

The revised final report delivery date will allow the Study Board to complete quality assurance processes and ensure the report provides a clear, comprehensive, and robust assessment of the impacts of pollution on people and species in the shared Elk-Kootenai/y watershed.

Furthermore, the Study Board will use the extended timeline to conduct more in-depth engagements with the Indigenous Nations and advisory groups during this time.

The Study Board appreciates the continued interest of all those who have contributed to and followed the study.

On March 8, 2024, the Governments of Canada and the United States provided a Reference that incorporates a proposal developed in partnership with the Ktunaxa Nation to the International Joint Commission (IJC), under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, requesting the IJC undertake certain actions regarding the impact of transboundary water pollution in the Elk-Kootenai/y watershed.

One of the actions was to establish a study board comprised of experts and knowledge holders that would conduct and synthesize transparent and coordinated transboundary knowledge sharing and deliver a final report and recommendations to the IJC.

The Elk-Kootenai/y Reference, the Proposal, and the establishment of the Study Board are the result of many conversations and cooperative initiatives involving U.S. and Canadian federal governments, provincial, state and Indigenous governments, and stakeholders regarding the impacts of pollution in the watershed.

This is a historic moment for Canada-United States transboundary relations as it represents the first time that Indigenous Peoples have played a key role in the development of a reference to the IJC under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.

The Elk and Kootenai/y rivers rise in the Canadian Rockies of the province of British Columbia and flow into Koocanusa Reservoir, an impoundment of the Kootenai/y River that spans the Canadian-U.S. border. Below the reservoir, the Kootenai/y River continues to flow through transboundary Ktunaxa lands, through the states of Montana and Idaho, and back to the province of British Columbia where it empties into the Columbia River.

Lead image: Lake Koocanusa in Montana.  e-KNOW file photos

International Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed Study Board

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