The potential mining activity on the Canadian Flathead has made it very important to conduct serious water quality monitoring and study in the watershed. Efforts to fund this through the Montana legislature began in mid-February.

U.S. opponents of B.C. mine call for water study

Residents of Montana opposed to plans for a coal mine in B.C. have asked the state to fund a study of the current water quality in the Flathead River, which flows from Canada into the U.S.

That way, they say, if the mine were built in the now-pristine valley just across the border in southeastern B.C., they would be able to measure any subsequent pollution on their side of the border.

State Senator Greg Barkus, who supports spending the $300,000 requested by a state agency for the study, said Montana needs a thorough analysis now, so they could prove the mine was polluting the river later.

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North Fork funds debated in Legislature

The North Fork of the Flathead River runs clean and cold out of Canada, and a Columbia Falls legislator hopes to keep it that way.

Worried about the impact of a proposed open-pit coal mine just miles north of the British Columbia-Montana border, Rep. Doug Cordier wants the state to pay for serious studies of the area’s water quality.

The data would be used to support Montana’s argument that the Ontario-based Cline Mining Corporation’s proposed two-mile open pit coal mine 25 miles northwest of Glacier National Park threatens the purity of the North Fork of the Flathead and Flathead Lake.

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