In a February 19 email, Steve Thompson of the National Parks Conservation Association passed along the following information on some discouraging developments concerning the Lillyburt coal mining project . . .
"I earlier... informed you [see 'Lillyburt, another open-pit threat'] about a joint venture by Western Canadian Coal and the Australian-based Wasabi Energy to develop another open-pit coal mine in the Canadian Flathead, this one in the valley bottom not far from the Flathead River on the eastern side, within the historic floodplain. The companies have now applied for a provincial exploratory permit to move some earth."
"It is called the Lillyburt project. This one is 15-20 miles [24-32 kilometers] north of the border. It's an absolutely gorgeous spot similar to the Big Praire area of Glacier just north of Polebridge." [See site photo.]
"The Flathead Basin Commission will be briefed by British Columbia this week..."
"The Lillyburt coal deposit already is probably better documented than Foisey Creek was when Cline got its exploratory permit last year. Lillyburt has been seen as a speculative play, which Shell Canada and perhaps Elk Valley Coal evaluated and walked away from in the past. The coal is accessible, but the infrastructure costs to develop this very remote prospect will be considerable. However, the Asian market for metallurgical coal has become more lucrative iin the last couple years. And perhaps they see the Cline mine as an opportunity to share costs and leapfrog further into the Flathead Valley. They could use the same access road over Harvey Pass, although it may also be feasible to extend a rail line from Elk Valley Coal's Coal Mountain mine, just a mile or so north of the Flathead hydrologic divide. Either way, it would fundamentally and irretrievably change the North Fork, even more directly than the Foisey Creek mine..."
All the more reason for a big-picture, binational dialogue about the appropriateness of industrializing the wildest valley vs. an alternative vision of transboundary conservation. This merry-go-round [has] gone round too many times... Are far-flung companies from Germany, Japan and Australia going to determine the future of the transboundary Flathead?