Another B.C. coal project raises water concerns

HELENA – A coal project in southeastern British Columbia is raising a stir north and south of the international border, less than a year after the provincial government blocked a coal mine that Montana protested as a threat to U.S. water quality.

Canada’s Cline Mining Corp. now plans exploratory work at a site about 20 air miles north of where it proposed mining coal before the province halted the plan last spring.

“Wastewater from this (potential) mine could irreparably harm our fisheries and recreational waters here in Montana,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Wednesday. “In the West, there is one rule: Don’t mess with our water.”

“We thought we had a working relationship in place with British Columbia,” Baucus said. The need of governments to consider “thoughtful, responsible resource development” is apparent, but “threatening pristine ecosystems and watersheds like Glacier National Park (south of the exploration area) are deal breakers.”

Provincial Minister of Energy and Mines Richard Neufeld said Baucus is a “radical” who assumes a mine will be developed when, in fact, Cline is simply exploring possibilities.

“What I would say to Senator Baucus is study it, do a little research, make a couple of phone calls before you fly off the handle and make yourself look silly,” Neufeld said in a telephone interview. The planned exploration is in an area that has been logged, and the world’s second-largest coal mine is less than 16 miles away, he said.

“No, we don’t destroy watersheds,” Neufeld added.

In Fernie, B.C., City Council member David Thomas said people there received no notice of the pending provincial action. The head of the Montana Water Management Bureau, Rich Moy, said he was not contacted, either.

“We issue small permits for exploratory work for all kinds of mines,” Neufeld said. “To my knowledge, we have never had to make the connection with Montana to be able to do that.”

“We don’t ask Montana to tell us when they go out and drill a few test holes.”

Neufeld said that if Cline decides it wants to operate a mine, then review and public notice requirements would be triggered, and Montana would be informed.

The province gave Cline a permit to build roads and remove 90 tons of coal as the company tries to determine whether a mine should be developed in British Columbia’s Foisey Creek headwaters area. Foisey Creek flows into the Flathead River system of British Columbia and Montana.

The proposal axed last year involved a site just north of Glacier National Park and had then-Gov. Judy Martz demanding a go-slow approach, to consider possible effects on the transboundary Flathead water system. The North Fork of the Flathead River, which flows into the United States from British Columbia, forms Glacier’s western boundary.