For decades in the Flathead Valley, the threat of upstream mining and drilling across the Canadian border has persisted as a constant, lingering threat. Every so often, news would break that another corporation intended to extract the rich deposits of coal, gold or methane that lie in the northern reaches of the Flathead River watershed.
Conservation groups would announce their opposition, warning of irreversible harm to wildlife and water quality. Montana’s federal delegation would issue angry statements and write stern letters to CEOs. Petitions and public meetings ensued.
British Columbia’s provincial government, meanwhile, often projected an air of defiance, coupled with an inclination to exercise a sovereign right to develop its natural resources as it saw fit. And with all these mining and drilling firms navigating B.C.’s regulatory limbo, how it would all play out remained unclear.
