Funding restored for lake research

The Montana Senate has restored funding for a long-term water quality monitoring program on Flathead Lake.

The Senate voted 35-18 Friday morning to provide the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station with $200,000 over the next two years. A Senate committee had killed funding for the program earlier this week.

But a joint effort by Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, and Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish, resurrected the issue on the Senate floor Friday morning.

Both senators had developed legislative amendments to restore funding. Weinberg pulled his amendment and advanced Keenan's because it provided a more stable long-term funding source for the program.

For years, the program has been funded through last-minute additions to the state's major spending package, House Bill 2. But the Keenan amendment established the program as part of House Bill 5, a capital projects bill.

"This should take care of the problem so we don't have to go through these political gymnastics every couple of years," Keenan said. "It's a permanent fix."

"It went smoothly," Weinberg said. "It was bipartisan. That was the trick. If people agree on things, it makes it a lot easier."

Weinberg had voted against the funding when it was considered by the Senate Finance Committee earlier this week - and he subsequently heard from unhappy Flathead Lake advocates.

Weinberg said he voted "no" because it was an 11th-hour spending proposal that came up after the committee had spent an entire day cutting spending.

"In the discussion in committee, it was also not clear whether there is alternative funding from private sources," he said.

It has since become clear that there are no obvious alternative money sources, Weinberg said.

The funding approved by the Senate will maintain water quality monitoring that has been carried out on the lake since 1978.

Bonnie Ellis, senior research scientist at the biological station, said steady, long-term monitoring of the lake and its tributaries is essential for an accurate picture of the lake's health.

"Flathead Lake is the pride of northwestern Montana and an enormous economic asset for the entire state," said Paul Williams, president of the Flathead Lakers. "We are grateful the Montana Senate wants to keep Flathead Lake clean and healthy. We urge the House to approve the funding as well."

The funding approval came on the heels of a Wednesday Senate vote approving a joint resolution that expresses concern over the potential for coal and coalbed methane development in British Columbia at the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River.

The resolution calls for a "transboundary environmental assessment" of the North Fork watershed prior to any development in British Columbia. And it urges involvement of the International Joint Commission, a panel of American and Canadian officials responsible for preventing and resolving transboundary disputes under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.

"What the Legislature is doing here is telling the State Department that this is a high priority for Montana," said Steve Thompson, Glacier program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, one of many members of the Flathead Coalition, an organization formed 30 years ago to protect the Flathead's transboundary waters.

The issue must be referred to the International Joint Commission by the Canadian and American federal governments, Thompson said.

Once that happens, the International Joint Commission could pursue an environmental assessment to establish baseline data, basically an inventory of current ecological conditions in the North Fork Flathead.

"It's an important statement and it's significant that it's bipartisan," Thompson said of the joint resolution.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com