By Brenda Heelan Powell, Staff Counsel, Environmental Law Centre
August 19, 2025 – The Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains play a critical role in the health of Alberta’s watersheds, providing more than 90% of the water that Albertans drink or use for irrigation. The region also provides important habitat for both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife including many species at risk. Coal development is known to cause significant impacts on water quality including through the release of selenium which bioaccumulates and biomagnifies through food webs. The impacts of surface coal mining are obvious: removing vegetation, transforming watersheds, and eliminating wildlife habitat. And subsurface coal mining operations are also shown to cause surface impacts such as subsidence, ground fissures, rock falls and landslides.
The work done by the Coal Policy Committee in 2021 reflected the strong desire of Albertans to protect the beauty and ecological importance of the Eastern Slopes, and to protect the headwaters vital to Alberta. The Coal Policy Committee recommended that coal exploration and development be guided by regional and sub-regional plans made under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act. Further, these plans should be completed before any more major coal project approvals are considered.’
In late 2024, the government announced its Coal Industry Modernization Initiative which seems focused on amending existing legislation rather than creating clear coal policy for the Eastern Slopes. We urge the government to rethink this approach and to make a commitment to develop, with fulsome public consultation, regional and sub-regional plans to address the concerns around coal exploration and development. This needs to include identification where coal tenure, exploration and development is not allowed.
Regional planning can be used to create and implement policy protections on a regional basis, addressing cumulative impacts within the region and clearly identifying areas where coal operations are not allowed. A subregional plan to specifically address impacts around coal exploration and development in the region could also be created and implemented. To date, neither has happened.
Regional plans should be completed and should include clear, regulatory requirements that delineate which areas are and are not open to coal exploration and development, as well as setting appropriate restrictions where coal activities are permitted. It is unlikely that coal resources can be responsibly developed in areas where there are species at risk whose recovery would be further jeopardized by coal development activities whether by surface disturbances or impacts on water.
Brenda Heelan Powell is Staff Counsel with the Environmental Law Centre, a law and policy-focused charity based in Edmonton. She can be reached at bhpowell@elc.ab.ca.