Teck Resources Limited announced today that its third water treatment facility, the Fording River South Active Water Treatment Facility (FRO-S AWTF), which has capacity to treat up to 20 million litres of water per day, is now operating and successfully removing selenium and nitrate from water at Teck’s operations in the upper Fording River.

Commissioning of the facility was completed in December 2021 and it is now ramping up to achieve 100% of design capacity.

Teck also announced it has completed construction of phase 1 of its fourth water treatment facility in the region, the Fording River North Saturated Rock Fill (FRO-N SRF), with commissioning now underway. Construction has also started on the expansion of this facility.

“The completion of this major new treatment facility is an important step forward in ensuring the environment is protected,” said Robin Sheremeta, Senior Vice President, Coal. “With this new treatment capacity, we expect to achieve one of the primary objectives of the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan: stabilizing and reducing the selenium trend in the Elk Valley.”

EVWQP Progress

Following the start-up of the FRO-S AWTF, Teck now has up to 47.5 million litres per day of water treatment capacity in the Elk Valley. After completion of the FRO-N SRF water treatment facility later this year, Teck will have capacity to treat up to 77.5 million litres of water per day, a four-fold increase from its treatment capacity in 2020. With the additional capacity, Teck expects to achieve one of the primary objectives of the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan: stabilizing and reducing the selenium trend in the Elk Valley.

Teck’s water treatment facilities in the Elk Valley include:

The first facility, West Line Creek Treatment Facility, successfully treating up to 7.5 million litres of water per day.

The second facility, Elkview Saturated Rock Fill, successfully treating up to 20 million litres of water per day.

The third facility, Fording River South Water Treatment Facility, ramping up to capacity to treat up to 20 million litres of water per day.

Our fourth facility, Fording River North Saturated Rock Fill, currently commissioning with expected initial capacity to treat up to seven million litres of water per day. This facility is being expanded to 30 million litres of water per day later this year.

Teck’s water treatment facilities are achieving approximately 95% removal of selenium and nitrate from treated water, the company said in a media release.

The Elk Valley Water Quality Plan (EVWQP) is designed to protect aquatic and human health while allowing for ongoing sustainable mining in the Elk Valley. The EVWQP was developed in cooperation with governments in Canada and the United States, Indigenous groups, communities, independent scientific experts and others, and was approved by the B.C. Government in 2014.

“Teck has spent more than $1.2 billion so far to implement the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan (EVWQP); between 2022 and 2024 we plan to invest up to a further $750 million in work to protect the watershed,” the company said.

Teck plans to have 77.5 million litres of water treatment capacity complete in 2022 and 120 million litres of treatment capacity complete by 2031.

Learn more about the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan.

Image: Teck

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