INTRODUCTinN 



Historically, aqriculture has been the most important industry of the 

 Northern Great Plains. In 1975, over 40"', of the primary employment in 

 Montana v/as provided by agriculture (Montana Dept. of Community Affairs 

 1976). Irrigated agriculture is also the largest consumer of water in the 

 Great Plains region. But another industry looms on the horizon, threatening 

 not only land but water, and that industry is coal development. In 1971, 

 the North Central Power Study (North Central Power Study Coordinating 

 Committee, 1971) described 42 potential power plant sites in the five-state 

 Northern Great Plains region. These plants fired by Northern Great Plains 

 coal, would generate 200,000 megawatts of electricity, consume 3.4 million 

 acre-feet of water annually and result in a large population increase. 



Strip mining itself involves little use of water, tiow important the 

 energy industry becomes as a water user depends on: 1) how much of the coal 

 mined in the region is exported, and by what means, and 2) by what process 

 and to what end product the remainder is converted within the region. If 

 conversion follows the patterns project by the Old West Regional Comnission 

 Study (Falser, et al . 1977), the energy industry will use from 48,350 to 

 326,740 acre feet of water annually by the year 2000. 



Coal reserves are plentiful in the Beaver Creek drainage and from the 

 earliest days, the outcroppings were cormon and easily recognizable by early 

 explorers. Small mines were opened in several vicinities during the homestead 

 era. The coal was used for fuel, blacksmithing and other activities requiring 

 the use of heat. But lack of transportation delayed the mining of coal on 

 a large scale. In 1972, Tenneco, Inc. realized the great potential in these 

 vast coal deposits and began buying coal leases from landowners along Beaver 

 Creek. In addition to private coal, federal coal reserves also exist, with 

 over 43,000 acres of federal coal present in the Wibaux-Beach coal field. 



Presently, Intake Water Company, a subsidiary of Tenneco, is interested 

 in constructing reservoirs and pipelines to serve the industrialization 

 expected to take place in the Beaver Creek drainage. Mining and possible 

 gasification of the Wibaux-Beach coal reserves will surely have a great 

 environmental impact. 



The objectives of this study were: 



(1) To inventory the aquatic resources of Beaver Creek to determine 

 species composition, diversity, distribution and relative abundance of aquatic 

 invertebrates and fishes to assist in predicting impacts of proposed water 

 storage projects and coal development; and 



(2) to collect identical information in selected Yellowstone River and 

 Beaver Creek tributaries located in Federal Coal Lease Nomination areas. 



Funding for the study was provided by the Bureau of Land Management 

 (BLM), U.S. Department of Interior (USDI). Field seasons extended from May 1 

 through October 15, 1977 and from March 1 through September 29, 1978. 



