Panel OKs money for border studies

The Daily Inter Lake

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is advancing legislation that would provide $1.3 million to collect baseline environmental information in the transboundary Flathead River system.

The Senate's Interior Appropriations subcommittee approved the funding Tuesday, and Thursday it will be taken up by the full Appropriations Committee.

"This is another critical step toward protecting the Flathead and our water quality," said Baucus, a 30-year opponent of mining in the Canadian headwaters of the Flathead River system. "We need this baseline data to continue to make the case that mining and other activity in British Columbia could have devastating consequences downstream in Montana."

The money will be directed to a collaborative study involving the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station, the Flathead Basin Commission, the UM College of Forestry and Conservation and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The study is aimed at assessing ecological threats from proposed coal mining and coal-bed methane development in the Canadian headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River.

The funding request was submitted by Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.

"I'm proud that these dollars and this research are going to come to the Flathead," Tester said. "Mining activity north of the border could drastically threaten the way of life in northwestern Montana. I'm going to keep open the lines of communication and do everything in my power as a senator to protect the quality of water on the North Fork."

The Interior Appropriations bill includes about $16.2 million for Montana conservation projects, including $3.92 million for land purchases in the Swan Valley aimed at increasing public access to the Flathead National Forest.