Page 24 - Flathead Beacon // 9.23.15

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SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
ROUNDUP
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1. Glacier Park International Airport Sets Another Ridership Record
For the third month in a row, Glacier Park International Airport had a record number of passengers fly out of Kalispell in August.
Cindi Martin, director of the airport, said 39,710 revenue passengers boarded flights in Kalispell last month, a new record and 2,600 more passengers than August 2014.
It was the third month in a row that GPIA set a ridership record. The airport had 21,280 revenue passengers board in Kalispell in June, over 1,000 passengers more than 2014. A total of 36,079 people boarded flights in July, nearly 1,000 more than the previous year.
There were 35,143 passengers who flew into Kalispell in August, compared to 34,242 a year ago.
Air travel in and out of the Kalispell airport is up 3.2 percent this year. Air- ports in Bozeman and Missoula are expe- riencing similar gains this year.
BROWNING
2. Historic Preservation Council: Drilling Would Degrade Badger-Two
Medicine
An independent federal agency that oversees preservation of historic places says energy exploration on the Bad- ger-Two Medicine would degrade the region’s cultural values.
The recommendation to withdraw energy leases in the area adjacent to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and Gla- cier National Park comes on the heels of a Sept. 2 meeting held by the Advi- sory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) in Choteau. The meeting fea- tured overwhelming support for the withdrawal of leases on the Badger-Two Medicine, an area with cultural and eco- logical linkages to the Blackfeet Nation and Glacier Park.
In its comments to Secretary of Agri- culture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell, the ACHP wrote: “If implemented, the Solenex exploratory
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well along with the reasonably foresee- able full field development would be so damaging to the TCD [Traditional Cul- tural District] that the Blackfeet Tribe’s ability to practice their religious and cultural traditions in this area as a living part of their community life and devel- opment would be lost. The cumulative effects of full field development, even with the mitigation measures proposed by Solenex, would result in serious and irreparable degradation of the historic values of the TCD that sustain the tribe. If necessary, the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture, should seek authorizations from Congress to withdraw or cancel the Solenex lease.”
Additional support for withdrawing leases in the Badger-Two Medicine has been voiced by tribal leaders, Gov. Steve Bullock, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, former Sec- retary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and six former Glacier Park superintendents.
POLSON
3. Government Asks Judge to Dismiss Case Against Dam Transfer
U.S. government attorneys are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that sought to block the transfer of a western Montana hydroelectric dam to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
Ownership of the former Kerr Dam, now called the Salish Kootenai Dam, passed over to the tribes earlier this month after tribal officials paid $18 mil- lion to NorthWestern Energy.
State Sen. Bob Keenan, former state Sen. Verdell Jackson and a Flathead Lake business had sought to block the transfer two days before it happened.
U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras rejected the request, and the government agencies being sued are now asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
They say any challenge of the Fed- eral Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the transfer must go before a federal appeals court.