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Environmental watchdog Chris Zimmer wonders if it will be another 50 years before anything is done about pollution from Tulsequah Chief mine draining into the Taku River.

Mine owner Redfern Resources Ltd. faced challenges when it proposed in 2007 running untested hoverbarges down the river to bring the ore to market. The plan met resistance from Juneau residents concerned about the Taku and its fishery.

But with Redfern exploring ways to reopen the mine, located 45 miles northeast of Juneau in British Columbia, there had at least been some hope that pollution running from the mine into the river would finally be cleaned up.

Then Redfern's parent company, Vancouver-based Redcorp Ventures Ltd., went bankrupt this spring.

With the company in financial shambles, equipment over the past several months was removed from the mine site, essentially eliminating any way to readily deal with acid mine drainage.

In May, a third party was assigned by the B.C. government to deal with Redcorp's debts.

"I don't think we're going to get anything out of the company here," said Zimmer, who works for the environmental group Rivers Without Borders. "We'll have to go back to the previous owner or get the B.C. government to pay attention."

The mine was operated from 1951 to 1957 by Cominco, now Teck Cominco Ltd., which sold the property to Redcorp when metal prices dropped.

Canadian inspectors have known the mine is leaking metals-laden water into the Tulsequah River, down the Taku River and into Southeast Alaska. Canadian environmental inspection reports show the discharge causes 100 percent mortality in fish in less than three hours. Tests were done as recently as May.

Sulfuric acid, which occurs naturally but in much greater quantities when construction disturbs and grinds up rock, leaches metals from the rock that then drain into the river.

Recent flow measurements show the mine leaking 190,000 gallons a day of acid, which is not much when river flows are taken into account, according to state large mine permitting coordinator Tom Crafford.

Still, his department is concerned, Crafford said.

As it has done in the past after inspections, the B.C. government ordered the company to stop the drainage. Redcorp in 2008 brought a water treatment plant into the site but never finished setting it up.

Fishermen and locals living along the banks of the Taku this summer reported barges of heavy equipment shipped out, Zimmer said. The water treatment plant also appears to be gone.

What's left is an unfinished road, an airstrip and what looks like empty buildings, said Zimmer, who flew several times over the site to inspect it from the air.

"The mine site has been largely abandoned," he said.

Alaska Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin wrote in July asking that the water treatment plant not be sold off or access to the site destroyed, either of which would make it more expensive to stop the drainage later.

Irwin's letter accompanied one by then-Gov. Sara Palin, who urged the B.C. government to find other means of cleaning up the site after Redcorp's insolvency.

The Canadian government did not respond to the state.

With future cleanup prospects looking slim, Zimmer's group recently hired a lawyer to explore options.

Zimmer said pressure for future mine development in the watershed means the Taku is at a crossroads.

"Are we going to see the mine company walk away from this site, or are we going to get the existing mess cleaned up and get a plan in place to protect the resource?" he said.

• Contact reporter Kim Marquis at 523-2279 or e-mail kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.