January 10, 2007

Cline mine meeting next week in Kalispell

From the Wednesday, January 10, 2007 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .

The Flathead Basin Commission has announced it will lead a meeting of its own on a proposed coal mine 22 miles north of Glacier National Park in British Columbia.

Montana Sen. Max Baucus is expected to kick off the meeting Jan. 15 at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell from 9 a.m. to noon. A second session will also be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on the same date. Gov. Brian Schweitzer is also expected to attend. Both representatives are expected at the morning session.

Comments on the mine will be taken and forwarded to the British Columbia Environmental Offices, said Caryn Miske, executive director of the Commission.

Miske said written comments will also be accepted and they, too, will be forwarded to British Columbia as well.

The prospects for the mine have raised a red flag in the U.S. and Canada.

The Cline mine, in short, would take off the top of a mountain in the Foisey Creek drainage, a tributary to the North Fork of the Flathead.

The company plans to mine coal from the open pit project for 20 years as well as upgrade a road system into the drainage. They plan on removing about 250,000 metric tons of coal per year.

The company claims the mine is far enough away from the Flathead River and Glacier National Park to minimize impacts.

American interests aren't buying that notion, however.

Read the entire article . . .

Posted by nfpa at January 10, 2007 08:57 PM