BP pulls out of North Fork, but coal mining still threatens streams

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

British Petroleum will not develop coal bed methane wells in the Flathead drainage, Montana Sen. Max Baucus told a crowd of about 200 people last week, but the North Fork and Glacier National Park still have looming industrial threats on the horizon.

Listeners were gathered at Flathead Valley Community College initially to hear a roundtable discussion about the threats of coal bed methane drilling and coal mining in the Flathead drainage when Baucus gave the crowd the news.

When the crowd heard it, they gave a big cheer.

Baucus credited the pressure his office and American interests put on British Petroleum and the province of British Columbia. The province made the decision, he said, and British Petroleum obliged.

Jake Jacobs, a spokesman for the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines, said it was a joint decision by BP and the province not to pursue coal bed methane development in the Flathead. In Canada, the North Fork is simply known as the Flathead River.

Over the past year, Baucus has met with BP officials and Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson on industrial development in the Flathead.

Baucus said he told them, "This is not going to happen. This is non-negotiable. It's not going to happen."

The North Fork makes up the western boundary of Glacier National Park and it still faces significant threats, including a proposed open-pit coal mine in the Foisey Creek drainage.

Foisey Creek is a main tributary to the Flathead and provides some of the best bull trout spawning in the drainage, Ric Hauer of the Flathead Lake Biological Station said.

The news on the coal bed methane front isn't all good news, either. BP still proposes going forward with its Mountain Mist CBM project in the Elk River drainage. Another company, Stormcat Energy, has CBM test wells in the Elk River drainage as well.

Baucus said he pressed for a full environmental assessment on coal bed methane development in the Elk River drainage and he said he might just fly to Ottawa and make his case to Canadian federal authorities as well.

Also on the panel were Sen. Jon Tester, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Rich Moy, Water Management Bureau Chief for the state Department of Natural Resources and Casey Brennan of Wildsight, an environmental watchdog group based in Fernie, British Columbia.

"Our most valuable resource is clean water," Tester said. "And it's disappearing fast."

Schweitzer promised to keep the pressure on British Columbia about the Elk River as well.

"There are places we cannot develop energy and the Flathead and Kootenai are two of them," Schweitzer said.

The Cline Mine still poses a significant threat to the Flathead. But Baucus noted that a Canadian Federal Environmental Assessment will be done on that project, which gives Americans three years to do their own studies.

Baucus and Tester recently secured about $900,000 to do baseline studies in both the Flathead and Elk River drainages. The state is funding baseline studies as well.

Brennan presented the crowd with before and after photos of both open-pit coal mining and coal bed methane wells. CBM wastewater is high in salts and metals, including iron.

Photos taken of discharge water from a well in the Elk River show the water, untreated, running a bright red into an Elk River tributary.

Moy said another concern is that if the Cline Mine is approved, it will open the floodgates for more mining even closer to the U.S. in the Flathead.