Tag Archives: Cline Mining

B.C. Parliament settles with Cline Mining for lost Flathead coal rights

Looks like Cline Mining has gone from major watershed threat to final bankruptcy . . .

The Parliament of British Columbia has agreed to a nearly $10 million settlement with a mining company that lost its right to develop coal deposits in the transboundary Flathead River near Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park.

The bankrupt Cline Mining Corp. announced Monday it had reached the out-of-court settlement after claiming it was losing a $500 million potential operation. The B.C. government had revoked mining rights as part of the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act in 2010. That legislation solidified an agreement worked out with former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus and Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana to protect the Flathead River.

A similar U.S. measure, the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, has passed the House of Representatives but has been blocked in the Senate. It would place the Montana side of the river, known as the North Fork of the Flathead, off limits to energy development. The international agreement allows logging, gravel mining and other recreation activities.

Read more . . .

Cline sues B.C. over Canadian Flathead mining ban

As mentioned last Wednesday, Cline Mining, the outfit that planned an open pit coal mine in the North Fork headwaters area up in Canada, sued British Columbia over its decision a couple of years ago to ban mining and other extractive industries in the Canadian Flathead. The story has since gotten quite a bit of coverage on both sides of the border. One of the better follow-up articles was just posted by the Missoulian . . .

The decades-long dispute over a proposed mining ban on the northern edge of Glacier National Park flared up this week when a Canadian mining company filed a lawsuit against the Province of British Columbia seeking $500 million in compensation for lost revenue.

In the lawsuit, Cline Mining Corp. alleges that the government of B.C. expropriated three coal properties in the Canadian Flathead Valley by passing the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, a recent piece of legislation that halted mining on all lands within the Flathead River watershed.

Cline lost its coal claims in the Flathead Valley in southeast B.C. when former Premier Gordon Campbell signed the Flathead Watershed Area Memorandum of Understanding with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, reversing a longstanding land use plan for the Canadian Flathead that gave drilling and mining primacy over all other uses.

Continue reading . . .

Cline Mining sues BC for $500 million due to lost mining claims in Flathead Valley

Well, now, look who’s in the news again.

Cline Mining, the outfit that wanted to put an open pit coal mine in the North Fork headwaters area up in Canada, is suing the British Columbia government for losses incurred when the province passed the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act.

Read the full article. There are a number of interesting nuggets buried in the later paragraphs . . .

Cline Mining has filed a $500-million lawsuit against the British Columbia government after losing a series of mining claims in the Flathead Valley in southeast B.C.

Cline’s action comes 27 months after the province yielded to pressure from environmentalists and the U.S. government to halt mining activity on the Canadian side of the environmentally sensitive Flathead, which is within Glacier National Park in Montana. The north fork of the Flathead, which has its headwaters in B.C., is part of the U.S. “wild and scenic rivers system” once it crosses from the East Kootenays into Montana.

Continue reading . . .

What the trout tell us

Dan Testa has an excellent piece in the Flathead Beacon discussing trout studies in the North Fork — on both sides of the border — and the general importance of this sort of baseline study in connection with the upcoming UNESCO scientific mission to study threats to Waterton-Glacier Park.

Here’s a sampler . . .

The research of these scientists is likely to be heavily relied upon by members of a United Nations fact-finding mission arriving in the region some time in the next year to determine whether Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park should be designated a “World Heritage Site in Danger.” The unanimous June vote in Seville, Spain, by a 21-country panel of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) could mean widespread attention will once again be drawn to the issue of threats from mining and drilling operations in southeastern British Columbia along the headwaters of the North Fork, which serves as the western boundary of Glacier National Park.

Read the entire article . . .

Threats to BC’s Flathead River Valley trigger World Heritage Committee investigation

According to the Waterton-Glacier in Danger web log, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has voted unanimously to send a delegation to investigate threats to Waterton-Glacier Park posed by resource development activities.

Here’s the lead-in from the press release. See the Waterton-Glacier in Danger site for details and breaking news . . .

Seville, Spain–UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee voted today to send a fact-finding mission to Canada to investigate threats to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park posed by energy and mining proposals in BC’s adjacent Flathead River Valley.

The 21-member committee voted unanimously for a 2009 World Heritage Centre mission that will “evaluate and provide recommendations on the requirements for ensuring the protection” of Waterton-Glacier, citing concern about the threats that potential mining and energy development within the Flathead Valley would have on water and ecosystem connectivity. It asked Canada and the US to work together to prepare a report–by February 1, 2010– that examines all Flathead River Valley energy and mining proposals and their cumulative impacts.

Read the full press release . . .

World Heritage Committee draft resolution on Waterton-Glacier posted

Today’s post on the Waterton-Glacier Endangered web log includes information on the UN World Heritage Committee draft resolution concerning the dangers posed to Waterton and Glacier parks by resource extraction in the Flathead headwaters region — the proposed Cline Mine, in particular. According to the posting, the first draft of the resolution does not explicitly call for placing Waterton-Glacier Park on the list of “Endangered World Heritage Sites,” nor does it yet address any indigenous concerns, including those views expressed by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The UN World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville, Spain runs through June 30th. The schedule document is more than a little opaque, so it is not clear when the resolution on Waterton-Glacier will come up for a final vote.

UN to hear petition that Waterton-Glacier Park in danger

Last Tuesday’s Globe and Mail carried an article on the move to place Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park on the UN list of endangered World Heritage Sites due to the proposed Cline Coal Mine in the Canadian Flathead and other possible resource extraction activities in that area. (Thanks to Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association for catching this one.)

A stunningly beautiful park that spans the Canada-U.S. border in southwestern Alberta may soon be added to an infamous United Nations list of the world’s most threatened special areas.

In a session in Seville, Spain, next month, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will consider a petition by 11 conservation groups asking that Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park be designated a World Heritage Site in Danger.

“If that happens, it would be a really big black eye for both Canada and the United States,” Ryland Nelson, a spokesman for one of the petitioning groups, Wildsight, said yesterday.

Read the entire article . . .

Endangered river designation for North Fork draws more coverage

The Flathead Beacon posted a tardy, but well-written article covering both of  the North Fork’s recent “endangered river” designations . . .

As the threat of large-scale mining continues to bear down on the headwaters of the Flathead River Basin – and as funding for conservation research hits a snag – Ric Hauer believes the North Fork Flathead River’s recent designation as one of the most endangered rivers in North America arrives with appropriate timing.

Read the entire article . . .

Blankenship press outing discusses endangered North Fork

The Hungry Horse News has a nice article about a press conference held at Blankenship to discuss American River’s listing of the North Fork as one of the ten most endangered rivers in the U.S.

Here’s the lead . . .

On a bright blue day at Blankenship black bugs come off the water and land on your head and arms and hat. They would be annoying if they weren’t such a good omen, because these black bugs are no ordinary bugs.

They’re stoneflies and they make their living in the tiny cracks between the rocks of the North Fork of the Flathead River. They’re annoying to us, maybe. But to trout they’re like candy. To trout they’re food staple.

Stoneflies in a river mean it’s clean and pure and unpolluted. Because streams that are polluted have sediments and filth that fill those cracks between the rocks that ultimately choke out the stoneflies entirely.

Put a coal mine along a stream and that’s what gets squeezed out first — the stoneflies from sediment washing into the river…

Read the entire article . . .

Flathead’s North Fork makes another ‘most endangered’ list

Following up on our earlier post about about the North Fork Flathead River making the American Rivers organization’s list of “America’s Most Endangered Rivers,” here’s the Missoulian’s write-up, which includes some additional information . . .

The North Fork Flathead River, a wild waterway forming the western edge of Glacier National Park, has recently been listed as one of the most endangered rivers in North America.

Canadian coal mine proposals and plans for coalbed methane and gold exploration all threaten the North Fork’s headwaters, according to both U.S. and Canadian watchdogs.

“Countries may recognize borders, but rivers don’t, and pollution doesn’t stop at the border,” said Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association. His group, along with the Flathead Coalition, recently nominated the North Fork for inclusion in “America’s Most Endangered Rivers.”

Read the entire article . . .