Pollution flows downhill to U.S.

Recent news from Washing-ton State sent shivers up my spine and struck too close to home.

The Columbia River, like our North Fork of the Flathead, is an international body of water flowing out of British Columbia and into the United States. A lead-and-zinc smelter in Trail, B.C., just upstream of Washington State, recently suffered an industrial accident.

The result? A ton of lead and 100 gallons of acid escaped the smelter and dumped into the Columbia River — to be swept downstream into the United States. No doubt, it could have been worse. But it made me think of the promises British Columbia has made about its plans to mine in the Canadian Flathead.

British Columbia promises up and down that its standards are strict, and no accidents will happen. But the recent industrial accident shows that things do go wrong, no matter how careful we humans try to be.

I realize a smelter is not a coal mine, but B.C. plans to literally turn a pristine mountain north of Glacier National Park inside out to dredge out the coal. There's plenty of opportunity there for things to go badly wrong. And the water flowing from that proposed mine site would flow into Glacier Park in hours and flow into Flathead Lake within days.

The people of Montana have much in common with the people of British Columbia. We are hard-working people who believe in both taking care of our natural resources and using them wisely. Many folks in the Fernie community do not want to risk ruining the North Fork, either.

Together, we need to convince the government of British Columbia that the North Fork of the Flathead drainage is simply too special to put at risk.

Roger Sherman

Whitefish