Amendments cause delay, target Spoklie gravel pit

By JIM MANN

The Daily Inter Lake

HELENA - Surprise amendments to a gravel-pit bill surfaced Wednesday in the Montana House, prompting Flathead Republicans to delay action on the bill because of its targeted effects on West Glacier gravel-pit owner Bob Spoklie.

The 51-46 decision to delay the vote on House Bill 583 until today steamed Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, the bill's sponsor. Jopek initially suspected the Republican leadership would let the legislation die on a shelf as the session closes Friday.

But Speaker of the House Scott Sales announced on the floor that the bill, along with amendments, would be debated on the floor this morning.

Rep. Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell, who made the motion to delay the bill, said that it would indeed return to the floor for debate today.

Sonju said he is flatly opposed to it because it is what he termed an 11th-hour, "backdoor" attempt to block expansion of Spoklie's gravel pit near West Glacier. Sonju said the Flathead County commissioners and Spoklie last week negotiated a compromise for an expansion permit.

Rep. Craig Witte, R-Kalispell, said Spoklie told him he intended to pick up that permit Tuesday, but he was told that it was "delayed" by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Sonju said Commissioners Gary Hall and Joe Brenneman are waiting for the Legislature to put a roadblock in front of the permit.

"Whether I agree with the gravel pit or not, he's been in business for 40 years there," Sonju said. "This is a matter of fairness."

(Spoklie actually acquired the property in 2004. It was a small, mostly inactive gravel operation before that.)

The amendments from Gov. Brian Schweitzer say that the state Department of Environmental Quality "may not grant a permit or a permit amendment for open-cut operations on lands within one mile of a national park, congressionally designated national monument, or congressionally designated national battlefield unless the department, after consultation with the federal agency that administers the park, monument or battlefield, determines that the operation would not adversely affect the national park, monument or battlefield."

Another amendment states that a holder of rights to such a property would not be entitled to just compensation as a "taking."

Jopek said the amendments are appropriate, considering that the state of Montana is asking the Cline Mining Corp. to consult with Glacier National Park on its proposed mine in the Canadian Flathead drainage.

"How can we ask Cline to consult with Glacier Park about impacts on the park when we aren't going to do it?" Jopek said.

Sonju said the amendments are irrelevant to the original and main purpose of HB 583, which was to clarify language in state statutes. He said he supports that original content, which was negotiated by the open-pit mining industry and the Department of Environmental Quality.

Jopek said "one of the biggest problems with existing law is that there's a lot of fuzzy language" that the legislation clarifies. "If we are ever going to resolve conflict between neighbors, industry and the DEQ, we need to have language we can agree on."