Published: October 4, 2024 |

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The International Joint Commission (IJC) said it has formed the International Elk-Kootenai/y Watershed Study board. Its formation complies with the reference and supporting proposal that the IJC received in March 2024.

The IJC’s directive to the study board explains its principal functions: convene experts and knowledge holders to conduct transparent and coordinated transboundary data and knowledge sharing, and share, synthesize and analyze data and information to support a common understanding of pollution within the watershed and its impacts on people and species.

Over the next two years, the study board will report and make recommendations on the matters set out in the reference. The study board will be co-chaired by Oliver Brandes and Tom Bansak. The study board, which is to be supported by technical working groups, is expected to submit an interim report in the fall of 2025 and a final report September 2026.

The study board consists of the following members: 
• Tom Bansak, University of Montana, United States Co-Chair
• Oliver Brandes, University of Victoria, Canadian Co-Chair 
• Kelly Munkittrick, University of Calgary, Canadian member 
• Stella Swanson, environmental consultant, Canadian member 
• Elder Vi Birdstone, ʔaq̓am Elder, Ktunaxa Nation member 
• Clayton Matt, Tribal Resource Management, retired director, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes member
• Rich Di Giulio, Duke University, retired, United States member 
• Jill Frankforter, U.S. Geological Survey, retired, United States member 

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. Building on this, the IJC has ensured that Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge will be a crucial part of the study board and its work, including through membership on the study board. 

A public webinar and comment period last month encouraged interested parties and individuals to share data/information with the IJC and to relay their interest in participating in study activities such as advisory groups and technical committees. More than twenty submissions were received and are now being considered by the study board. 

Quick Facts   

• The reference, the rroposal, and the establishment of the study board are the result of many conversations and cooperative initiatives involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, provincial, state and Indigenous governments, and stakeholders regarding the impacts of pollution in the watershed.

• The March 2024 request to the IJC from the governments of Canada and the United States, in partnership with the Ktunaxa Nation, represented an historic moment in the history of United States-Canada transboundary relations.

• The Elk River rises in the Canadian Rockies and flows into the United States at Lake Koocanusa (also known as Koocanusa Reservoir), an impoundment of the Kootenay/Kootenai River. It then flows through the states of Montana and Idaho, and through transboundary Ktunaxa lands, on its way back to the province of British Columbia, where it empties into the Columbia River.

Canada and the United States created the International Joint Commission because they recognized that each country is affected by the other’s actions in lake and river systems along the border. The two countries cooperate to manage these waters and to protect them for the benefit of today’s citizens and future generations. The IJC is guided by the Boundary Waters Treaty, signed by Canada and the United States in 1909. The treaty provides general principles, rather than detailed prescriptions, for preventing and resolving disputes over waters shared between the two countries and for settling other transboundary issues. The specific application of these principles is decided on a case-by-case basis.

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