Area outdoor group applauds mining ban

POLSON — Dr. Ric Hauer, limnology professor at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, had some good news when he came to Polson last Tuesday.

The timing of his lecture, “Pristine waters and biodiversity threatened in the North Fork Flathead River,” could not have been any better. That same day, Feb. 9, British Columbia Lt. Gov. Steven Point outlawed controversial mining in the Canadian area of the Flathead River Valley, an act that could save the beautiful water and biodiversity citizens of Lake County enjoy in Flathead Lake and the surrounding rivers.

The news, which Hauer announced at the end of his lecture, was met with applause and joy from the more than 20 community members attending the Mission Mountain Audubon Society’s monthly meeting. Hauer has worked extensively in studying the effects of any potential mining north of the border in the Canadian portion of the Flathead Valley.

Hauer began his lecture by describing the Flathead Valley as what is known as the Crown of the Continent because of the three major drainages that flow through Glacier National Park: the Saskatchewan River, which flows into Hudson Bay, the Missouri/Mississippi, which flows into the Atlantic, and the Columbia, which flows into the Pacific. This confluence of rivers gives the area some of the cleanest water on the planet and the highest biodiversity and complexity between Mexico and the Yukon. Any sort of mining or mining exploration would undoubtedly threaten and irrevocably damage the pristine waters that make up this crown of the continent, he said.

Coalfields in the area are numerous and rich, immensely increasing the appeal to coal companies that see the area as a cash pit, not a beautiful landscape that mining will forever alter.

Hauer said the Canadian company’s plan would be to mine two million metric tons of coal each year, which equals a truck carrying a full load of coal leaving the site every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 20 years.

“Part of the concern is that if one mine is developed, all the rest will eventually be too,” Hauer said, noting the massive quantities of coalfields in the Flathead headwaters. “A whole series of mines would potentially occur.”

Locally, the mining would potentially affect already endangered Flathead Lake bull trout. Hauer said about 25 percent of all Flathead bull trout go up the North Fork to spawn, and the mining site would alter their spawning site. This could have devastating effects on the fish population and make-up of the lake.

Mining has already occurred in a nearby portion of British Columbia. Hauer discussed coalmining at Elk River, just north of Fernie, British Columbia, that has been ongoing for years. He and several of his students had gone up there in previous years to research the effects of mining on water quality and biodiversity. The results, Hauer said, were bad.

The group looked at nitrogen, sulfate and selenium levels in the Elk River and the results were staggering, he said. For instance, the nitrate nitrogen levels in Polebridge on the North Fork of the Flathead contain six parts per billion, a level Hauer said is good. Comparably, the group found 25,000 parts per billion next to the mine, a number that speaks for itself, Hauer said. Higher levels of nitrogen change the make-up of the waterways ecosystem, helping some species to dominate, while others suffer. The levels of selenium, a metal that is exposed during mining, in the river was consistently high, almost to a toxic point.

“Selenium can cause birth defects in vertebrates,” Hauer said. “I wouldn’t eat fish out of the Elk River.”

The news last week that mining will not be allowed in the area is a major win for biologists like Hauer, and was received with great enthusiasm by Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester. Hauer noted during his lecture that if Canada did its part, the United States should reciprocate by helping as well. Tester acknowledged the same idea in a press release sent on Feb. 11: “Canada stepped up to be a good neighbor, and now we’ll do our part to safeguard this area so our kids and grandkids can fish, hunt, hike and camp in it like we do,” he acknowledged.

Hauer realized stopping the mining was a first step, and that complacency is not an option. But the recognition by both governments can only help preserve beautiful northwest Montana.

“There are some areas of the planet that just aren’t compatible for these types of activities,” Hauer said. “And this is one of them.”