Country singer Corb Lund gets OK to launch anti-coal petition drive in Alberta

Corb Lund says he's seeking the intervention as new coal mines could threaten land and water on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and affect the Prairies downstream.

Alberta singer Corb Lund has been given the go-ahead to start collecting signatures for a petition to ask the province to pass a law banning new coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

Elections Alberta posted the official OK on its website.

Lund has received multiple Juno and Canadian Country Music Association nominations and awards and is also a longtime, vocal opponent of mountain coal mining in southern Alberta.

A sixth-generation Albertan, Lund lives and ranches in Taber area, near the banks of the Old Man River, downstream from where mines would be located.

“I get a lot of flak about being a celebrity or whatever and I should shut up and sing. And it’s like, well, I drink that water, like, I drink the water out of the Oldman River,” Lund said in a phone interview from Las Vegas, where he has been performing.

The vast area of mountains, streams and meadows is home to threatened species such as grizzly bears and contains the headwaters for much of the fresh water in the southern prairies.

It has also been logged and mined for decades. The region produces metallurgical coal for steel-making, not power generation.

Lund added: “There’s no subterfuge, there’s no hidden agenda. It’s just we don’t want coal mining in the headwaters of the Rocky Mountain rivers. Simple.”