In a meeting Monday with executives from British Petroleum Co., Sen. Max Baucus said BP should expect “a massive and unpleasant fight from Montana” if the company moves ahead with a proposal to open southwest British Columbia to drilling and energy exploration. The senator also warned that fight “will end badly” for BP.
“I've been fighting to protect water quality and wildlife in the Flathead Valley for 30 years,” Baucus said after the meeting. “I'm not about to give up now. We're going to do whatever it takes to stop energy development north of our border. We're pulling out all the stops. The gloves are off.”
Tester said that, for now, he favors negotiation and dialogue.
Both senators recently requested Montana involvement in Canada's federal environmental review process, which has been triggered to analyze potential risks posed by a coal mine planned in the same region as BP's coalbed methane project.
They are the latest in a 30-year string of energy development proposals in the Canadian Flathead. In the past, those projects have been opposed from both sides of Montana's political aisle, and have involved bi-national scientific reviews.
Currently, Cline Mining Corp. wants to remove a mountaintop at the headwaters of the Canadian Flathead, digging some 40 million tons of coal over the next 20 years. And BP Canada Energy Co. has proposed a $100 million coalbed methane exploration project in that same river drainage.
The company has said initial exploration would be limited to 25 wells, but Erin Sexton, a research scientist at the Flathead Lake Biological Station, estimates full coalbed methane production of the Crowsnest field would result in up to 50,000 wells across some 148,000 wilderness acres.
The Crowsnest field is thought to contain 27.7 billion tons of coal and 12 trillion cubic feet of methane gas. It also is home to several endangered species, and drains into what is arguably the most protected region in the lower 48 states.
The Canadian Flathead flows south to form the western edge of Glacier Park, before spilling into Flathead Lake. Downstream interests worry the energy projects could harm fish, wildlife and water quality south of the border. Specifically, they argue coal-mine pollutants will flow south, as will tremendous volumes of wastewater pumped up to access the methane beneath.
Opponents have requested an exhaustive baseline environmental study be completed before development begins, so any future problems can be measured against natural conditions.
Provincial leaders in British Columbia have balked at such lengthy analysis, and recently said they will allow BP to begin drilling even as baseline data is collected. Scientists and political leaders in both Canada and Montana have warned that approach will taint results, and have requested at least three years of data collection before the companies break ground.
The province's own consultants agreed, noting that “with respect to water quality, there is little data from low-order streams that could be considered for the discharge of de-watered coalbeds. This is a potentially critical information gap, and baseline water quality monitoring will very likely be needed for at least three years before (methane) development.”
Although the Canadian government has not invested in that baseline data collection to date, downstream interests have.
The National Park Service is conducting a $100,000 coal-seam chemistry study, while the U.S. Geological Survey is spending $300,000 on water quality work. The Park Service also has invested $75,000 to monitor waters at the border.
At the Flathead Lake Biological Station, a research arm of the University of Montana, scientists have received $300,000 from state lawmakers to study the watershed, and state wildlife managers have spent about $100,000 so far monitoring the downstream fishery.
Meanwhile, Congress is looking to earmark as much as $3.8 million to the scientific study cause, with Baucus at the center of that effort.
On Monday, Baucus met in Washington, D.C., with Bob Malone, BP America chairman and president, and Randy McLeod, chief of BP Canada.
In addition to warning the company of his strong opposition to development plans north of Glacier Park, Baucus asked that hearings on the matter be held in Kalispell and other downstream communities.
Executives at BP were unavailable to comment on the Monday meeting, but last month company spokeswoman Anita Perry told the Missoulian no Montana hearings would be held “because this is a B.C. project, not a Montana project.”
But because so much wastewater is produced by methane wells - often containing barium, copper, iron, ammonium and other toxins - and because water runs downhill, Baucus pressed BP brass to convene hearings south of the border.
The company has said it plans to re-inject wastewater, but scientists on both sides of the border have questioned whether that approach is possible given the fractured geology of the mountain region.
“Some places should be off limits,” Baucus said Monday. “It's that simple. Some places are too important to hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation.”
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