The U.S. Supreme Court dramatically curtailed Clean Water Act protections with its ruling in Sackett v. EPA, favoring polluters over the health of wetlands and headwater creeks across Montana and the nation. Let’s back up. What was the Sackett v….
Category: Issues
Two Years After Calling for a Cold Water Fisheries Task Force, Southwest MT Trout Populations Fall to Historic Lows
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…
SW Montana’s Jefferson Basin Trout at Historic Lows; Recruitment Class Absent
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…
EPA Approves Gallatin River Impairment Designation
State of Montana Can Officially Begin the TMDL Clean-Up Process Recent reporting by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle covered the EPA’s approval of an “impairment” determination for the Middle Segment Gallatin River. This segment stretches from Yellowstone National Park downstream to…
Waterkeeper Challenges Rubber Stamp of New Water Pollution from Big Sky
Agency Violates Law and Ignores Gallatin River Algal Blooms Upper Missouri Waterkeeper filed a complaint against the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for authorizing new wastewater discharges from the Quarry Project, a new major subdivision in Big Sky, without…
Dirty Water Bills Progress Through the Legislature
Bills Create More Problems Than Solutions; Ignore Water Quantity and Quality Issues Plaguing State’s Water Resources Recent reporting by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle highlights several concerning water bills that have made it through 2023 Montana Legislative Session transmittal, yet fail…
Crash Course in All Things WOTUS
As of March 2023 there are three unique legal actions underway, each of which may affect the scope of headwaters protection for waterways across the United States, and especially for arid intermountain states like Montana whose stream miles include >…
Unscientific, Politicized Repeal Efforts Put Montana’s Water at Risk
EPA’s New WOTUS Rule Faces Congressional Challenges Recent reporting by the Public News Service calls attention to Republicans’ efforts to challenge the Biden Administration’s new “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule that clarifies protections for Montana’s waterways under the…
The Inadequacies of DEQ’s Quarry Project EA
Montana DEQ’s Draft Environmental Assessment on the Quarry Planned Unit Development contains a multitude of issues: Project Segmentation into Phases Avoids Traditional Regulatory Scrutiny: Using Dozens of Septic Systems to Avoid Pollution Control Permitting: Ignores Cumulative Impacts in Violation of…
Fact Sheet: Draft Environmental Assessment for the Quarry Project
Fact Sheet: Draft Environmental Assessment for the Quarry Project Residential Subdivision #1 EQ# 22-22120 & 22-2092 Big Sky, MT What is the Quarry Project? A “Planned Unit Development” of new phased residential and commercial construction Sited on 175 acres, reclaiming…