VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AFX) - Teck Cominco Ltd. was reviewing its options Tuesday, including seeking a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court, after a U.S. appeals court refused to rehear a decision allowing a lawsuit against the company for polluting the Columbia river to go ahead.
Teck Cominco spokesman Doug Horswill said Tuesday the company has 90 days to decide if it wants to try to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
'We're evaluating our options and we'll consider what our future course of action is in light of the decision and the advice that we will get from our lawyers,' Horswill said.
Teck Cominco has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to rehear a case against it 'en banc' after a three-judge panel ruled a lawsuit by the Colville Confederated Tribes against the company could proceed.
In July, the appeals panel found the company subject to the U.S. Superfund law in the cleanup of Lake Roosevelt, a 149-mile stretch of the upper Columbia River behind Grand Coulee Dam. On Oct. 30, without comment, the appeals court refused to reconsider that ruling.
The decision affirmed a 2004 ruling by U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald of Yakima against dismissing the lawsuit filed by Joseph Pakootas and Donald Michel of the Colville tribe, whose reservation is bounded by the river.
Teck Cominco has argued the lawsuit should be thrown out because the U.S. could not impose rules on Canadian companies operating on Canadian soil.
Austen Parrish, an associate professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles who has followed the case, suggested that aspect might attract the U.S. Supreme Court to hearing the case.
'It raises some interesting, cutting-edge issues as to whether these environmental statutes should apply extraterritorially,' Parrish said.
The Columbia was polluted with heavy metals and black slag leaching downstream from Teck Cominco's lead and zinc smelter in Trail, B.C., 10 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border.
The lawsuit filed by the tribe and the state in 2004 was the first instance of Americans suing a Canadian company under the U.S. Superfund law. They accused the company of dumping millions of tons of heavy metals into the river for nearly 90 years, allowing it to flow into the United States.
They demanded the company comply with a December 2003 EPA order to pay for studies of pollution from the giant lead-zinc smelter.
However, in June, EPA officials said the 2003 order was being withdrawn as part of a voluntary settlement with Teck Cominco to study the contamination.
'We're committed to the deal we signed with the EPA and are moving forward on the studies on the river to try and address the real issues out there,' Horswill said Tuesday.
Shares of Teck Cominco closed up $1.10 at $77.16 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
© 2006 AFX News
