Page 24 - Flathead Beacon // 7.20.16

ROUNDUP
FROM BEACON STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES
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1. Oil Company to Plead Guilty to
Criminal Charges Over Spill
An oil company has agreed to plead guilty to two criminal charges and pay a $100,000 ne for a 2011 spill in north- western Montana, but its attorneys urged a judge to approve the deal quickly while it can still a ord to pay.
FX Drilling Inc. will admit to negli- gently discharging oil into waters of the United States and to failing to immedi- ately notify federal o cials, under a plea agreement led last week in U.S. District Court. The deal calls for the company to pay the ne on top of the $321,000 it already spent to clean up the spill, and for federal prosecutors to dismiss charges against the company’s supervisor.
Up to 840 gallons of oil and production uid leaked from a cracked line at an oil eld on Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The spill spread over land nearly a mile to Cut Bank Creek, where it was spotted by a rancher and reported to the Black- feet Environmental O ce, according to prosecutors.
Blackfeet o cials informed FX Drill- ing of the spill, but the company never reported it to the federal National Response Center, prosecutors said.
The company and federal prosecutors have agreed that the cracked pipe was an accident and that FX Drilling has satis- ed its restitution obligations by paying for the cleanup, according to court lings.
Both sides urged U.S. District Judge Brian Morris to approve the plea deal and ne quickly, because the company is having nancial di culties, according to a joint request by prosecutors and attor- neys for FX Drilling.
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backlogged logging projects.
Forest management and the declin-
ing timber industry have emerged as major issues in this year’s governor’s race, with Weyerhaeuser announcing last month that it would close a Colum- bia Falls lumber and plywood mill. The closure will put about 100 people out of work in addition to 100 administrative jobs that are being eliminated or moved with Weyerhaeuser’s purchase of Plum Creek Timber.
With the Chessman Reservoir as a backdrop, Bullock, Forest Service Regional Forester Leanne Marten and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director John Tubbs signed the Good Neighbor Authority agreement, which was autho- rized under the 2014 federal Farm Bill.
The agreement will allow the state to work on behalf of the Forest Service on federal land, such as conducting environ- mental analyses for logging projects. For- est management, including logging trees for fuel reduction, is important as re seasons grow longer and more intense, U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie said.
But most of the Forest Service’s budget is being spent ghting res, and the num- ber of non- re Forest Service employees has dropped 39 percent since the 1990s, Bonnie said.
“This allows us to get more work done more quickly,” Bonnie said of the agreement.
Two logging and restoration projects in the Flathead National Forest and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National For- est will be the rst conducted under the signed agreement, but Bullock said two other projects have been undertaken without a formal deal.
HELENA
3. Medical Marijuana Measure
Quali es for Montana Ballot
A measure that seeks to expand the availability of medical marijuana in Montana has quali ed for the November ballot.
The Secretary of State’s O ce certi ed
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2. Montana Signs Forest Management Deal with Federal Government
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Ser- vice on July 18 for the state to play a big- ger role in forest management on federal lands, which o cials say will speed up
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JULY 20, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM