Coal Strip-mines and Gold Exploration Endanger Glacier National Park and the Wild and Scenic Flathead River
The Flathead River is one of the most wild, biologically-rich places in the world. The river originates in British Columbia, Canada, and flows south into Montana, where it forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park. The Flathead River is also endangered: the 2009 report by American Rivers listed the Flathead as fifth on its Most Endangered Rivers List.
In the United States, the Flathead is protected as a Wild and Scenic River. But its Canadian headwaters remain unprotected and face development threats. The provincial land use plan for the watershed encourages mining and energy extraction, and three large energy projects currently threaten to degrade the river.
Cline Mining Corporation is proposing to put an open-pit coal mine in the very headwaters of the Flathead River, just 25 miles upstream of Glacier National Park. The Lodgepole Mine would remove a mountaintop 22 miles upstream of the U.S. border to excavate 40 million tons of coal. The mine pit, settling ponds, and waste dumps would be within the tributaries to the headwaters of the Flathead River. Contaminated waste from the mine would ruin water quality and industrialize one of the wildest landscapes in North America This activity would also threaten the fish and wildlife of Glacier National Park.
A second threat is posed by the Mist Mountain coal bed methane (CBM) project owned by B.P. Canada Energy Company. It would transform 50,000 acres of the Flathead headwaters into an industrial gas field, which would harm Glacier's grizzly population and produce hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater that is fatal to trout.
On-going gold exploration is a third threat to the Flathead River Valley. Heavy metals from these projects could pollute the water and decimate areas used for hiking, fishing and boating. The metals and chemicals would damage habitat for endangered bull trout and Westslope cutthroat trout, Montana’s state fish.
The trans-boundary Flathead River and Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park also contain all the large carnivores in North America, including grizzly bears, lynx, and wolves. The impacts of open-pit coal mining and coalbed methane extraction would threaten the long-term survival of these shared wildlife populations.
Montana and British Columbia must work together to develop a long-term conservation strategy that permanently protects the entire Flathead River from the effects of industrial mining. President Barack Obama expressed his opposition to such uses in 2008, and opposition continues to garner unwavering support from Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and the Montana Congressional delegation, including Senator Max Baucus.
To read the NPCA Briefing Paper for United States and Canadian Officials:
