Teck Cominco must pay Colvilles’ costs

Canadian mining company Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd., must pay the legal expenses of two members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, who sued the company over its pollution of the Columbia River. A federal judge in Spokane last week also ordered the company to reimburse the Colville Tribe for more than $1 million it spent on the case in the past five years. The tribe and two of its members sued the company in an effort to force it to comply with U.S. law on operations of its giant smelter in Trail, British Columbia. The smelter had released hazardous substances directly into the Columbia River for a century.