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B.C. coal looks at Glacier

KALISPELL, Mont. — Recent developments in British Columbia’s coal industry have raised concerns in Montana and in at least one Canadian town.

By Jim Mann
Hagadone News Network

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2004/03/21/business/bus02.txt

There are plans to resurrect coal exploration just north of Glacier National Park in the same area that led to elaborate transboundary negotiations in the 1980s. And the British Columbia government has recently advanced plans for coalbed methane development on several tracts in the Elk River Valley, including one in the headwaters of the North Fork Flathead River.

The coalbed methane plan has alarmed citizens in the town of Fernie, B.C. More than 250 people attended a Tuesday meeting of the City Council, which passed a resolution requesting the provincial government delay plans to auction off "tenure" leases for coalbed methane on the Crowsnest Coalfield.

The council is asking for "a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts of large-scale gas exploration and production on the environment, economy and human community of the Elk Valley."

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Fernie Mayor Randal Macnair said citizens are concerned about how coalbed methane development would impact an economy that has gradually transitioned toward resort development.

Major developments, worth roughly $1 billion Canadian, are getting under way at the Fernie Ski Resort and a signature golf course near town. The golf course is "just down the road" from one of the proposed methane fields.

"The community spoke quite loudly and clearly that they had problems with the compatibility of coalbed methane development and resort development," he said.

"There are concerns that if coalbed methane extraction is not done sensitively or even if it is done sensitively, there may be some adverse impact on resort development," Macnair said. "Coal mining is still our primary industry here. We are a community in transition."

And, he said, there are concerns that the provincial government has been less than accommodating in soliciting input from the city. The Ministry of Energy and Mines notified the city’s building inspector of an open house on March 3 and requested a formal response just two days later.

"The city did not think that was an appropriate consultation. Period," Macnair said.

The tenure auction date was originally set for April 28, but the Fernie council wants that extended until the impacts of coalbed methane development are thoroughly examined.

Tenure amounts to a five-year, right-and-obligation for companies to explore for gas. If those explorations are successful, they can translate into a full-scale production lease.

Macnair said it is the provincial government pushing the development, rather than industry.

"It’s being driven by the province without a doubt," he said. "They are offering large subsidies for industry to undertake this development."

Meanwhile, coal mining leases along Cabin Creek and Howell Creek, just a few miles north of the border, were purchased last month by the Cline Mining Corp., a small firm based in Toronto.

That company has proposed a "minor exploration program that will entail the removal of approximately 156 tons of coal for test purposes," said Shawn Robins, director of communications for the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The "window" for that exploration to occur is April 15 through June 15.

The project will involve reopening old roads leading to the sites and re-entering six tunnels, or adits, to extract coal that will be tested in Ottawa.

Past exploration in the area has revealed two veins holding high-quality "coking" coal. It is expected that the veins could produce between 1.7 million and 3 million tons annually for 20 years.

It was the same mining site that prompted the Montana Legislature to form the Flathead Basin Commission in 1983, and for the state of Montana to pursue formal negotiations with Canada under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty in 1985.

Mark Holston, public information officer for Montana’s Flathead Basin Commission, said the Cabin Creek exploration plans raise many of the same concerns that Montanans had in the 1980s, but he said there is no clear danger of major mine development on the immediate horizon.

"All of this is market-driven," Holston said. "If there weren’t a very hungry market for this type of coal in the Far East, we wouldn’t be talking about this today. It’s still a very remote site and it would require an incredible amount of investment and infrastructure to get to those resources."

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