Montana’s Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is proposing significant changes to its groundwater pollution discharge permitting rules, and some of the changes are for the worse. In Montana, groundwater connectivity to nearby surface waters has been well documented and is…
Attend a public listening session in Helena, Missoula, or online The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently announce a comment period and listening sessions on updating the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), a critical component of environmental permitting and…
Last August 2022, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and several of its members filed a lawsuit complaint against both Broadwater County and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) for their approval of the Horse Creek Hills subdivision, a major new…
Miles of Waterways Now Excluded from Federal Protection This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a new Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule after the Supreme Court ruled in the Sackett v. EPA wetlands litigation in May 2023….
Waterkeeper and National Organizations File Comments to Improve Statewide CAFO Permitting Yesterday, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and several national organizations submitted technical comments to the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) on the proposed renewal of the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation…
Increasing pollution, including the growing threat posed by nutrient pollution related to unrelenting development pressure, continues to challenge Montana’s clean water and world-class rivers. Once every three years, the Montana Department of Environmental Protection (DEQ) conducts a comprehensive review of…
You’ve likely seen the troubling news that trout populations in the Jefferson Basin including the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Ruby Rivers, have crashed to 50-year lows. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ (FWP) own data show that brown and rainbow trout…
Support the BLM’s Public Lands Proposal Public lands in southwest Montana have been unnecessarily at risk from industrial oil and gas leasing and development under the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) public lands management plans for decades, threatening our wildlife,…
You don’t have to look far to see that Southwest Montana’s world-renowned wild trout fisheries have been on the decline for the past several years. A suite of troubling conditions – low snowpack and dewatered rivers, nutrient pollution driven noxious…
Governor Has Ignored Calls for Cold Water Fisheries Task Force Recent reporting from the Montana Standard exposed an emergency situation on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Ruby, and Jefferson rivers. Wild trout populations in these rivers have plummeted to 50-year+ historic…
