One of the main jobs of Upper Missouri Waterkeeper is to protect the rights of our members and fight against projects that would do harm to our river valleys. Below we’ve shared an open letter from some of our members…
Category: Issues
What’s the Deal with the Horse Creek Hills Mini-Mansion Subdivision?
The Project Horse Creek Hills (HCH) subdivision is a proposed 4-phase, 435 acre development sited in Broadwater County on the eastern shore and directly upstream from Canyon Ferry Lake and nearby Confederate Creek. The proposed site is a rural, predominantly…
Support Stronger Pollution Control Exemptions
Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is proposing a new suite of rules concerning how sectors that discharge wastewater (municipalities, industry, and construction/commercial) may seek a water quality standards variance. The public comment period is open until August 22, 2022…
Support a Pollution Clean-Up Plan for the Gallatin River
The Problem Since 2018, the middle segment of the world-class Gallatin River has been plagued by widespread, noxious neon-green algal blooms. This scenic, wild, cold-water stretch of the Gallatin River is home to 3,000 wild trout per mile and supports…
FAQs: Gallatin River Middle Segment Impairment Designation
June 2022 Preliminary Determination of Impairment What’s being proposed? Based on a review of best available science from the past 10 years, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a preliminary determination that the middle segment Gallatin River…
Conservation Groups, Fishing Businesses, and Montanans Ask Governor to Prioritize Cold Water Fisheries
Gianforte’s Failure to Act and Forecast For Hot, Dry Summer Doesn’t Bode Well For Montana’s Wild Trout Fisheries Today, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a broad coalition of fly fishing businesses, conservation organizations, and…
New EPA/USACE WOTUS Rule (Feb 2022)
Background on ‘WOTUS’ The EPA and USACE have recently issued a Proposed Rule that would replace the recently vacated “Navigable Waters Protection Rule” definition under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) finalized by the Trump administration on April 21, 2020…
The Truth About a Stormwater Designation in Gallatin County
In the summer of 2021, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper submitted a petition to the Montana Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requesting the designation of Gallatin County as a municipal separate stormwater system (MS4) entity to better control stormwater pollution in the…
Conservation Organizations Call on Gov. Gianforte to Hold NorthWestern Energy Accountable for Madison River Disaster
Malfunction left the Upper Madison River with significantly diminished flows, causing fish die-offs during a critical spawning time. On Tuesday morning, the Upper Madison River’s Hebgen Dam experienced malfunctions resulting in drastically reduced flows from Hebgen Lake to Madison River….
Montana’s Rollback of Clean Water Protections Unscientific; Likely Illegal
Clearing the Water: What Montana’s Proposed Changes to Nutrient Standards Really Means After another major story on Governor Gianforte Administration’s efforts to roll back clean water protections for polluting special interests, more questions were raised than answered. What has become…