Tester, BP square off on North Fork gas drilling

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Montana Sen. Jon Tester has raised opposition to coal bed methane exploration and development in the Canadian Flathead. But the company that plans on doing the drilling claims it will do the work in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Tester, in a letter earlier this month to Andy Inglis, the chief executive of energy and exploration for British Petroleum, said he had "serious reservations and opposition" to BP Canada Energy Company's recent proposal to begin coal bed methane exploration in the Flathead.

The river forms most of the western boundary of Glacier National Park. Opponents in the U.S. claim CBM development in Canada would harm not only the water quality here, but would also harm large carnivores like wolves and grizzly bears, which routinely cross the border into Canada.

Coal bed methane development requires a large network of football field-sized well pads and roads to serve them.

The disturbance is compounded by millions of gallons of wastewater from the operations that in, in most cases, is unpotable and toxic to fish and anything else that consumes it.

"As a Montana senator, it is my belief that your company's proposal represents an unacceptable level of risk to Montana water quality, native trout populations and the ecological integrity of Glacier National Park," Tester wrote.

BP was in the process of drafting a letter in response to Tester, said Anita Perry, vice president of government and public affairs for BP in Canada.

She said they were "definitely listening" to Tester and claimed the company was "committed to addressing the impacts of the project."

She said BP has not yet sought permits to do exploratory drilling in the Flathead. The only permit the company has, she said, was to do a fish study. In fact, Perry claimed the company hasn't determined where in the Crowsnest coal field it would actually do its drilling.

She said the company did not have a timeline for seeking an exploratory permit, which is contrary to previous reports. The Flathead Basin Commission learned earlier this month that BP would seek exploratory drilling permits from its Canadian representative Kathy Eichenberger.

Perry claimed Eichenberger was "misquoted" in newspaper stories.

She also said that BP would not discharge wastewater from the coal bed operations into surface water. Critics in the states, however, claim that even if the wastewater is reinjected underground, it would rise back to the surface because of the geology of the region.

Perry said BP would undergo an three- to five-year environmental assessment phase, which includes exploratory drilling. Data from that phase would be open to the public, she claimed.

She said BP would not do a project if it wasn't environmentally responsible and economically feasible.

But the company literature on the project, called the "Mist Mountain Coalbed Gas Project," says that if the project becomes a commercial venture, it plans on having 100 to 150 wellpads with as many as 10 wells on each pad, with a lifespan of at least 50 years.

The project could be lucrative, however, with a company estimate of $2 billion in royalties to the province of British Columbia as well as $2 billion in corporate taxes and an additional $3 billion in capital investments.

That would be in stark contrast to the region as it is now. Right now it is uninhabitated public land perched directly north of Glacier National Park.