Potential British Columbia natural-gas work that raised environmental alarms in Montana is being dropped, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Thursday.

Energy giant BP and British Columbia officials decided that extraction of coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas, will not be pursued on the Canadian side of the Flathead River Basin, Baucus told The Associated Press on Thursday. BP Canada spokeswoman Anita Perry said the possibility of coal-bed methane development in the Canadian Flathead has been withdrawn from provincial evaluation of a larger area where BP remains interested in potential coal-bed methane work.

''The province recognizes the sensitivity of the Flathead Valley and so we are not including this area,'' said Graham Currie, spokesman for the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Perry said BP supports ''the approach the government is taking.''

Baucus said in a telephone interview that ''the environmental risk threatening the Flathead is just much too high'' for coal-bed methane development to advance.

In Montana, alarm arose about possible harm to water quality in the Flathead River system, which spans the British Columbia-Montana border. The river's North Fork forms the western boundary of Glacier and flows into Montana's Flathead Lake.

Although the Canadian Flathead has been withdrawn from coal-bed methane consideration, concern in Montana continues with regard to potential coal-bed methane work in British Columbia's nearby Elk Valley, Baucus said. Elk Valley development could affect water quality in the border-straddling Lake Koocanusa, he said.

Besides coal-bed methane work, a coal mining proposal in southeastern British Columbia is being examined by regulators in Canada. The mine also has been challenged by Montana representatives.

''We're fighting the coal mine just as much as we're fighting coal-bed methane,'' Baucus said.

Officials in British Columbia have said environmental review there is top of the line, and concerns expressed in Montana have been premature.

Besides Baucus, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Gov. Brian Schweitzer have opposed development in the Flathead Basin north of the border.