Flathead Basin Commission gears up for action

FLATHEAD LAKE - As the sun sets on this year's summer season, the Flathead Basin Commission (FBC) is poised to change focus, zooming in on water quality restoration projects.

"We want action, not just talk," Dave DeGrandpre, commission chair and Lake County Planner, said last week. "The bottom line is that it's time to start cleaning up."

To that end, the FBC is currently looking for an executive director, a new position designed to develop grants and manage projects.

DeGrandpre, who has been the commission's chairman for three years, said that the application deadline is Sept. 30.

He explained that the new job is the "result of lots of needs," and that over the past five years the FBC has begun emphasizing water quality restoration and improvement projects.

"We have lots of information at hand," the planner remarked. "We need to do more than study and talk about water quality."

The commission was established by the legislature during the late 1970s as a result of coal mining proposals in British Columbia, directly upstream from Montana's Flathead basin.

Over the years, the FBC's range of activity has grown. Now, that activity has expanded to the point of requiring a professional administrator.

According to DeGrandpre, a few years ago the FBC initiated a project aimed at reducing pollution-causing nutrients entering Flathead Lake. The idea of that project, the planner said, is to meet "maximum daily load" numbers set by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"The Flathead Basin Commission has a $90,000 appropriation (from the state) every two years," he explained. "With that we have built grant projects totalling almost $1 million. Now we need technical help in managing these projects."

The FBC will also continue along its established workpath in the areas of increasing public awareness of water quality challenges and keeping a sharp eye on the basin's water quality.

For the time being, the commission's current public information officer, Mark Holston, will remain on the job.

The new executive director post is "grant-funded for now," DeGrandpre said. "The person will have to be a grant writer who is also technically astute about water quality, grant administration, and evaluating potential water quality impacts."

The new executive director will work from the Kalispell offices of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

For more information about the executive director position and/or the Flathead Basin Commission, contact the commission office at (406) 752-0081. Or, call DeGrandpre at (406) 883-7236.