Water issues don't stop at border

It's out-of-sight and out-of-mind, but that doesn't mean it's not important.

Canada's Flathead Basin is one and the same as Montana's North Fork Flathead Basin on the western flank of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. There is indeed an international border dividing the two, but that doesn't mean our views of this area need to stop at that boundary.

Fortunately, there is an effort to take a much closer look at the transboundary Flathead, prompted in large part by the potential for coal mine development in the northernmost headwaters that feed the North Fork Flathead River and ultimately Flathead Lake, one of the largest jewels in the Crown of the Continent.

Montana state agencies, along with Glacier National Park, the Flathead Basin Commission and the University of Montana's Biological Station on Flathead Lake have cobbled together a concerted effort to monitor existing conditions in Canada's Flathead. These parties are also engaged in an unprecedented diplomacy with the province of British Columbia on two fronts: developing a long-term understanding of the best ways to manage the basin as a whole, and participating in a process that will establish the environmental review standards for a mining project that's proposed by the Cline Mining Corp. of Ottawa.

The state of Montana and, indeed, the United States have a clear interest in what happens in the Canadian Flathead. The area is currently a wellspring of ecological health that extends well south of the border - in the form of migrating wildlife, fish populations and clean water. Any degradation of these resources will also extend south of the border.

"Baseline" conditions were not monitored before coalbed methane development got under way in the Powder River Basin that straddles the Montana-Wyoming border. As a result, it's been difficult to demonstrate whether any changes have occurred in that river's conditions as a result of coalbed methane production.

We don't need that kind of confusion here. If British Columbia proceeds with mining development in its Flathead Basin, Montana and the United States government have a vested interest in demonstrating any harm that crosses the border.