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Waterton Lakes park in danger?
Jun 28, 2008
By Sherri Gallant
Southern
Albertans who treasure the unspoiled qualities of Waterton Lakes
National Park may believe the park’s World Heritage Site status serves
to protect it from environmental plunder.
But that may not be true if a strip mine and a coalbed methane project both eyed for the Flathead Valley in southeastern B.C. — spitting distance from Lethbridge — are allowed by the B.C. government.
The United Nations has begun an investigation in the wake of outcries from area environmentalists (the matter has even been raised in the U.S. presidential race, with Barack Obama weighing in earlier this month) and could end up listing Waterton-Glacier as a World Heritage Site In Danger.
“The designation ‘In Danger’ has no force in law,” said Casey Brennan of Wildsight, based in Fernie, “but what it does is set in motion the World Heritage Committee (WHC) to form a committee and begin to do outreach, to immediately approach the government and work with them to improve stewardship.”
It can’t come too soon, Brennan says, since B.C. Energy officials were expected to decide June 21 on whether to give tenure to BP for the coalbed methane project. So far, no announcement has been made, but if BP acquires tenure for the land, it would be able to apply for drilling permits.
The Cranbrook Daily Townsman reported recently the ministry is considering issuing BP a tenure agreement allowing it to explore for petroleum and natural gas in the Crowsnest Coalfield in the Elk River drainage, near Fernie. The tenure agreement would include both shallow and deep rights and give the holder the exclusive right to apply for permission to drill wells in the agreement area. If BP is successful in getting tenure for the area, they will be required to conduct environmental studies including surface water hydrogeology, wildlife, traditional use and vegetation.
Brennan’s organization and 10 others petitioned the WHC and the International Joint Commission, and while they haven’t heard from the IJC yet, the WHC replied it had already started a file on the controversial mining projects, which could threaten the purity of the Flathead watershed, which flows south to form the western border of Montana’s Glacier National Park.
The petitions were prepared by environmental law organizations Ecojustice (Canada) and Earthjustice (U.S.) on behalf of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, B.C. Chapter, the Dogwood Initiative, the Flathead Coalition, Headwaters Montana, the National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club B.C., the Wilderness Society, Wildsight, and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Together, the groups represent hundreds of thousands of members and supporters.
“Using extensive documentation from existing scientific data, these groups are pointing out that the Flathead watership is critical habitat for rare and endangered species that migrate in and out of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park,” Brennan said.
“The list includes iconic species such as grizzly bear, grey wolf, lynx, wolverines, big-horn sheep, mountain goat. tailed frog, bull trout and westslope (blackspotted) cutthroat trout.”
The two proposed developments threaten the ecological integrity of the Flathead, Brennan said. Cline Mining Corporation’s Lodgepole open-pit coal mine, near the Foisey Creek and McLatchie Creek tributaries to the Flathead River, is about 40 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border. BP Canada’s Mist Mountain coalbed methane extraction project could transform 500 square kilometres of wilderness in the Flathead and Elk valleys, near Fernie, into a network of service roads, pipelines, well sites, power lines, pumps, compressors and flaring stations.
The City of Fernie is officially opposed to either project and has declared by council vote it will fight BP’s efforts all the way.
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (the world’s first International Peace Park) is designated as a world heritage site and United Nations biosphere reserve.
But that may not be true if a strip mine and a coalbed methane project both eyed for the Flathead Valley in southeastern B.C. — spitting distance from Lethbridge — are allowed by the B.C. government.
The United Nations has begun an investigation in the wake of outcries from area environmentalists (the matter has even been raised in the U.S. presidential race, with Barack Obama weighing in earlier this month) and could end up listing Waterton-Glacier as a World Heritage Site In Danger.
“The designation ‘In Danger’ has no force in law,” said Casey Brennan of Wildsight, based in Fernie, “but what it does is set in motion the World Heritage Committee (WHC) to form a committee and begin to do outreach, to immediately approach the government and work with them to improve stewardship.”
It can’t come too soon, Brennan says, since B.C. Energy officials were expected to decide June 21 on whether to give tenure to BP for the coalbed methane project. So far, no announcement has been made, but if BP acquires tenure for the land, it would be able to apply for drilling permits.
The Cranbrook Daily Townsman reported recently the ministry is considering issuing BP a tenure agreement allowing it to explore for petroleum and natural gas in the Crowsnest Coalfield in the Elk River drainage, near Fernie. The tenure agreement would include both shallow and deep rights and give the holder the exclusive right to apply for permission to drill wells in the agreement area. If BP is successful in getting tenure for the area, they will be required to conduct environmental studies including surface water hydrogeology, wildlife, traditional use and vegetation.
Brennan’s organization and 10 others petitioned the WHC and the International Joint Commission, and while they haven’t heard from the IJC yet, the WHC replied it had already started a file on the controversial mining projects, which could threaten the purity of the Flathead watershed, which flows south to form the western border of Montana’s Glacier National Park.
The petitions were prepared by environmental law organizations Ecojustice (Canada) and Earthjustice (U.S.) on behalf of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, B.C. Chapter, the Dogwood Initiative, the Flathead Coalition, Headwaters Montana, the National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club B.C., the Wilderness Society, Wildsight, and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Together, the groups represent hundreds of thousands of members and supporters.
“Using extensive documentation from existing scientific data, these groups are pointing out that the Flathead watership is critical habitat for rare and endangered species that migrate in and out of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park,” Brennan said.
“The list includes iconic species such as grizzly bear, grey wolf, lynx, wolverines, big-horn sheep, mountain goat. tailed frog, bull trout and westslope (blackspotted) cutthroat trout.”
The two proposed developments threaten the ecological integrity of the Flathead, Brennan said. Cline Mining Corporation’s Lodgepole open-pit coal mine, near the Foisey Creek and McLatchie Creek tributaries to the Flathead River, is about 40 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border. BP Canada’s Mist Mountain coalbed methane extraction project could transform 500 square kilometres of wilderness in the Flathead and Elk valleys, near Fernie, into a network of service roads, pipelines, well sites, power lines, pumps, compressors and flaring stations.
The City of Fernie is officially opposed to either project and has declared by council vote it will fight BP’s efforts all the way.
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (the world’s first International Peace Park) is designated as a world heritage site and United Nations biosphere reserve.
