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Written by Sherri Gallant
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Friday, January 22 2010, 9:13 PM |
No mining activity in the Flathead Valley is safe mining activity when it comes to protecting the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, suggests a UNESCO report now in the hands of federal government officials in Canada and the U.S.
“I don’t want to get into too much of the detail, but the overriding recommendation is that in the view of the mission, they see mining in the Flathead watershed as creating unacceptable impacts on the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage Site, and they don’t think there’s a compromise position,” said Stephen Morris, head of the international affairs office for the U.S. National Park Service.
Morris said the 50-page report, prepared by scientists from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, is very thorough. The team embarked on a week-long tour of sites in Montana, Alberta and B.C. in September to determine the risk proposed mining ventures in the Flathead could have on the the peace park, a World Heritage Site. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee sent the fact-finding mission in response to a petition by Sierra Club BC, Wildsight, CPAWS and eight other conservation groups.
“When they were there they spent six full days meeting with officials and touring the area,” Morris said. “They started out on the U.S. side and spent two or three days, then went to Alberta and over to B.C., and they had two over-flights.”
There are several applications in the works for mining projects in the Flathead, for coalbed methane, coal and gold. One of them is from Cline Mining Corp., a proposal for the Lodgepole mine, a coal strip mine in the Flathead watershed, 35 kilometres from Glacier.
“They said, in reference to the Lodgepole proposal, that should that move into the application review stage of the assessment process, then at that point they say that would be a basis for putting Waterton-Glacier on the World Heritage Site in danger list.
“This is report is fairly sweeping in its conclusion about mining, any kind of mining being unsuitable. We agree with the recommendations of the report, because they echo the concerns that we’ve been saying all along. This report is one step in the process. The World Heritage Committee has to review this report and they will be reviewing a joint report submitted by the United States and Canada on the status of the site.
“Both of these reports will be reviewed during their next session, in July (in Brazil). Then they will issue another decision.”
At that point, the UNESCO report will be made public.
“I would like to say that we remain committed to working with our Canadian counterparts to find an acceptable solution which preserves outstanding universal value of the site,” Morris said. “The report recommends that if these mining proposals reach the application review stage, that the U.S. and Canadian governments should request that the International Joint Commission (IJC) undertake a technical assessment of the proposals.”
One of the other recommendations of the report, Morris said, is that there be a single conservation and wildlife management plan developed for the entire transboundary Flathead region, and that was something that was called for 20 years ago when the IJC looked at the Cabin Creek Mine, and it never happened. So it’s echoing something that was said a long time ago.”
Morris’s Canadian counterpart, Larry Ostola, director general of Historic Sites and Monuments with Parks Canada, did not reply to a request for an interview Friday, but Jeff Pender, a Parks Canada spokesman, said Canadian officials will not speak about the report until it is tabled by the World Heritage Committee in July.
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