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….
Tag: Current Issue
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…
Gallatin County Commission Rightfully Denied Major Subdivision Application
Sandhill Subdivision Lacked Sufficient Studies of Impacts to Local Water On Tuesday, May 9th, the Gallatin County Commission denied the preliminary plat application for the Sandhill Major Subdivision, a proposed 34-lot subdivision south of Kagy Blvd in Bozeman reliant on…
Proposed Sandhill Major Subdivision Violates Law and Threatens Clean Water Resources
Gallatin County Commission Should Deny Application On Tuesday, April 25th, the Gallatin County Planning Board rubber-stamped a preliminary plat application for the Sandhill Major Subdivision, a new 34-lot subdivision south of Bozeman city limits reliant on exempt wells and septic…
State of Montana Officially Declares Gallatin River ‘Impaired’
Nutrient pollution levels too high to support aquatic life, recreation Today, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) formally declared the middle segment of the Gallatin River ‘impaired’ by algal blooms under Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA)….
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 >…