Flathead Coalition meets with BP exec

B.C. government OKs coalbed methane project northwest of Glacier Park

By DAVID ERICKSON

Whitefish Pilot

Less than a week after a group of concerned citizens asked British Petroleum to at least temporarily suspend plans for a proposed coalbed methane project northwest of Glacier National Park, the provincial government of British Columbia has given the company tacit approval to proceed.

On Dec. 5, the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum granted BP the rights to go ahead with the proposed Mist Mountain coalbed methane project. An area containing the Flathead River headwaters was left out of the approval.

"We're disappointed," said Dave Hadden, of the Flathead Coalition, an environmental conservation alliance. "We believe there needs to be a bi-national cumulative-effects assessment. We're trying to figure out what the relationship is between our visit and the ministry's decision to administer the tenure. I think there's a connection, but I don't necessarily know what it is. Tenure means the government has given the company the right to proceed, and in some respects, it's going to be hard to turn this project around now."

Montana and British Columbia should study the environmental effects of the mining operation before the project goes forward, Hadden said.

Flathead Coalition representatives met with the head of British Petroleum Canada Energy Co. on Dec. 2 to discuss industrial resource extraction in the Canadian headwaters of the Flathead and Elk River valleys.

Whitefish resident Will Hammerquist, acting on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association and the bi-national Flathead Coalition, talked at length with BP Canada CEO Randy McLeod about their concerns over the potential impacts of the Mist Mountain coalbed methane project.

"The ball is in their court," Hammerquist said. "This meeting shows that we have their attention. Our goal is to get them to realize that they need to make a commitment to not pursue industrial development in the headwaters of the Flathead River and next door to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park."

Even after getting provincial government approval, the Mist Mountain project is still in the early planning stage. BP is in the process of assessing whether natural gas in British Columbia's huge Crowsnest coal field can be produced in an economically viable and environmentally safe manner, according to BP.

The North Fork of the Flathead River begins in the Crowsnest coal field area and flows south into Montana, eventually draining into Flathead Lake.

"The Crowsnest coal field is one of the largest, if not the largest, undeveloped coal field in the world," Hammerquist said. "It holds one of the last key wildlife corridors between Glacier National Park and the Canadian Rockies."

Hadden said coalbed methane development in the area would involve drilling more than 1,000 wells.

"Coalbed methane extraction has a huge footprint," he said. "They will directional drill, which will help, but the kind of impacts that the B.C. government allows is stream sedimentation, pipeline flaring, and contaminated water discharge from the wells into open streams. The example of extraction as a practice in B.C. now is a real primitive form of extraction. Whatever impacts BP chooses to mitigate is totally at their discretion.

At their Dec. 2 meeting, Hammerquist and other Flathead Coalition representatives specifically requested that BP place the Mist Mountain project on hold until the completion of an independent, bi-national cumulative analysis that would examine the impacts of the resource extraction on transboundary water quality, wildlife and local communities.

"It's always interesting to meet with someone who makes more money during that meeting than I will make all year, but Mr. McCleod was very engaged and listened to our concerns," Hammerquist said. "We're confident that with time, BP will see that the Flathead headwaters should never be developed, and the impact of these proposals should be studied in depth."

In addition to the Mist Mountain project, BP still has proposals on the table for the Cline coal mine and Howell Creek gold exploration project near the North Fork's headwaters, according to Hammerquist. The parent company of BP Canada, British Petroleum, is the third largest global energy company in the world.

For Hadden, the decision by the B.C. government to exclude the area containing the headwaters of the Flathead River is just a small consolation prize.

"The original plan was for 193 square miles, and they scaled it back to (186 square miles)," he said. "We are talking about pipelines, power lines and roads. Any reduction in size came about as a result of public pressure. We believe that has been removed simply to remove political obstacles. There are still water and land quality issues. It's really the last place grizzly bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines can move freely through a wildlife corridor. It will also affect traditional recreation activities."

Hammerquist said the Mist Mountain project and all other proposals coming forward for the region should not go forward until Montana and British Columbia work out their differences. Earlier this year, Sen. Max Baucus said he'd received personal assurances that the proposed Cline coal mine project would be indefinitely suspended, but Hammerquist said no plans are off the table for the energy companies.

"The area is still threatened by inadequate land-use planning," Hammerquist said. "People who live downstream do not want a coalbed methane project anywhere near Glacier International Peace Park."