Protect Water Quality in Montana
Posted by: Toby Swank
Date: 08/15/2023
Montana water quality is under constant attack as a result of short-sighted development plans, outdated agricultural practices, and mediocre government oversight.
Montana is “The Last Best Place,” but that notoriety comes with a burden and a call to action to protect and preserve this amazing home of ours for future generations. One voice in the crowd is too often, easily drowned or quickly dismissed when it speaks out “against the gran.’ Montana will continue to change - growth is “inevitable” – and if that growth is not well-planned, we will continue to degrade all of the attributes of this special place we all call home. Montana water quality is under constant attack as a result of short-sighted development plans, outdated agricultural practices, and mediocre government oversight. There is a small, Bozeman-based non-profit called Upper Missouri Waterkeeper that is on the “front lines” of the water quality fight in Montana that we believe is truly worth standing behind and supporting.
We encourage you to visit their website to learn more about the issues facing Montana’s water quality, the organization, and also to take action to help protect what we have – it won’t last if we do nothing.
Here are a few recent updates from their website as well as links to add comments to government agencies regarding upcoming policy-crafting measures.
Tell Montana to Ensure Factory Farms Protect Our Waterways
While Montana is well-known for its generational family farms and ranches and traditional style agriculture, industrial large-scale agriculture and factory farms have found their way to the state. Montana currently has over 100 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) that raise cattle, hogs, and chickens for slaughter.
These industrial facilities put out enormous amounts of waste that could destroy fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, contaminate drinking water supplies, and put people's health at risk, making it ever more important that their pollution is properly controlled and disposed.
Montana is now taking public comments on a draft of its General Permit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which will set rules and standards for a majority of the industrial operations. This is our opportunity to tell the state to put communities and water quality first by strengthening its permit rules and stopping pollution before it occurs.
Request Gov. Gianforte Form a Cold Water Fisheries Task Force
Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and a broad coalition of fly fishing businesses and lodges, conservation groups, and 875 citizens submitted a petition to Governor Gianforte requesting the formation of a Cold Water Fisheries Task Force to address the decline of Montana's world-class fisheries. Our rivers need to be protected for generations to come. Now, with the latest fisheries collapse in the Jefferson Basin, it is critical that the State of Montana steps up and takes action to protect the fisheries and communities of Southwest Montana. Ask Governor Gianforte to follow through on our two-year old request and take action to protect the Jefferson Basin now.
"This week, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper documented and notified the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) of a miles-long neon-green noxious algal bloom emerging on the Big Hole River downstream of Divide. The new algal bloom adds to the suite of troubling conditions plaguing the river and basin this summer, including a major collapse in brown and rainbow trout populations, warm water temperatures prompting hoot owl restrictions, and low flows.
“A healthy river needs balanced physical, chemical, and biological processes, and all three on the Big Hole River are sadly degraded,” said Guy Alsentzer, Executive Director of Upper Missouri Waterkeeper. “In the face of climate change, trout population decline, and excessive nutrient pollution, we need to take decisive action with science-based solutions capable of restoring this world-class waterway.”
What’s Happening with Wild Trout in Southwest Montana?
"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 populations are at historic lows since the agency began reporting population data in the late 1960s, and recruitment of young-of-year is largely absent, meaning the population numbers will further decline in the coming years. FWP is at a loss for answers and has yet to release a comprehensive plan for restoring and conserving wild trout populations in SW Montana."
“Upper Missouri Waterkeeper is Southwest Montana’s leading clean water defense organization. By supporting Waterkeeper, you’re helping us make a difference for the waterways, communities, and businesses throughout Montana’s Upper Missouri River Basin.
We don’t take corporate polluter money and we aren’t government funded, meaning its people like you who donate that help us protect and improve Montana’s headwater streams for present and future generations.“