A short water quality history

Every North Forker is painfully aware that British Columbia is vital to our lifestyle and well being. After all, the North Fork of the Flathead River flows out of British Columbia and provides us with the cold, clear, pure water that is essential to us and to Flathead Lake.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been concerned about Canadian industrial threats to water quality in the river. Most urgent threat was the development of coal mines in the upper Flathead. This was one of the main reasons the North Fork Preservation Association was organized.

At one point, NFPA president John Frederick and his then-wife Sharon bought stock in the coal company that had development plans in the Flathead. For several years, they attended stockholders meetings to raise awareness of our concerns.

Montana Gov. Ted Schwinden began negotiations with British Columbia to address water-quality issues, and since then every Montana governor continued those efforts. Although the efforts of Govs. Stan Stephens, Marc Racicot and Judy Martz seemed to make little progress, step by step the Canadians and Americans were making headway. The International Joint Commission and the Flathead Basin Commission and B.C. officials continued to meet, share concerns and move toward a solution.

In my opinion, the most important individual in the whole process was Rich Moy, a now retired state employee who kept a series of Montana governors involved and informed. As a member and chairman of the Flathead Basin Commission, Rich was instrumental in maintaining contact with B.C. officials.

The big breakthrough came when Gov. Brian Schweitzer managed to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with British Columbia that should see the end of industrial development in the Flathead portion of B.C. Still incomplete is payment of several million dollars to Canadian companies to compensate them for money already spent on exploration.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nature Conservancy of the U.S. have endeavored to raise this money, and the latest word I have is that Canada has raised their portion and the U.S. is getting close to success.

This agreement, when concluded, is a major step in protecting the North Fork now and for the foreseeable future.

However, a coalition of environmental groups in Canada feel that more action is needed. Their biggest goal seems to be the expansion of Waterton Park into British Columbia — from the Continental Divide on the east to the banks of the North Fork of the Flathead River on the west.

To further this agenda, about 80 people from Montana and B.C. held a “hands across the border” dinner at the Canada Border this week. Attending were folks who all seemed to support the expansion of Waterton Park. We shall see. What do you think?