From the Wednesday, May 5, 2004 issue of The Missoulian . . .
KALISPELL - Canadian plans to extract coal and methane from just north of Glacier National Park appear headed for the global arena, with the Flathead's official water-quality watchdogs asking for international review of the proposals.
In a resolution passed Monday, the state-sponsored Flathead Basin Commission requested "the British Columbia government to immediately defer any action on coal bed methane and coal mining proposals until completion of a comprehensive assessment by the International Joint Commission."
The IJC is made up of representatives from both sides of the border, and is charged with resolving transboundary water disputes. The six-member IJC implements the 1909 Boundary Waters treaty between the United States and Canada, which states, in part, that neither country's water pollution shall impact the health and property of the other.
The resolution passed Monday also requests "Montana's congressional delegation to seek assistance from the U.S. secretary of state to invoke the provisions of the Boundary Waters Treaty and to use IJC authority under the treaty to assess potential impacts of methane gas exploration and production and new coal mines."
In other words, the Basin Commission wants British Columbia's government to slow down on plans to drill and mine, at least until the international community has a chance to study the impacts.
The resolution, coupled with a similar request by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., "assures the inevitable involvement of the two federal governments," according to David Thomas.
Thomas is a city council member in Fernie, B.C. On Monday, he made the trip to Kalispell to warn members of the Basin Commission about energy development plans north of the border.
His message: Canada's federal and provincial governments do not have adequate laws to protect the environment, and it's the folks in the states who "can, in fact, do much more about this than I can."
It is a fact of which the members of the Basin Commission are well aware. The commission itself was formed by Montana's state government for that very reason back in the 1980s.
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