Protecting the Gallatin River

Montana’s clean water is in serious jeopardy. We are facing a gauntlet of an exponentially booming population and the accompanying development as people from across the country and the world decide to relocate to places where peace, solitude, and wild country are still available outside their door (and the real estate is still relatively cheap).

COVID-19 has also shown that a large segment of the workforce can perform all or most of their duties remotely, which has opened up the ability for people to move to Montana while keeping their big city tech and finance jobs.

Population growth will drive the need for more housing, and land developers across Montana are seeing an enormous financial opportunity in subdividing large tracts of land in the hope of cashing in on the increased demand. This has placed at risk a number of natural and social attributes, such as wildlife, landscape connectivity, open space, and agricultural productivity.

While the story of growth in Montana and its impacts on our environment are not new, it is clear that we are entering a new and rapidly growing phase of development. As part of its programmatic priorities, MEIC is bolstering its work on land development and is planning to help address this direct threat to Montana’s quality of life, clean water, and wild landscapes.

Lazy J South Subdivision: Direct Threat to the Water Quality of the Gallatin River

In Montana, most of the planning and zoning decisions occur at the local government level, guided by state laws on zoning and subdivision. However, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) still retains the duty for the review and issuance of discharge permits into More People, state waters (MPDES permits). Subdivisions

More Poop, are often required to go through the MPDES More Problems permitting process in order to demonstrate their by Derf Johnson compliance with Clean Water Act standards and that the development will not have a deleterious impact on Montana’s waters. One recently-issued permit reveals the serious problems with DEQ’s permitting process and its failure to effectively protect the clean water that we all rely upon. The Lazy J South subdivision is a 200+ acre housing and commercial development in the resort community of Big Sky and on the flanks of the world-famous Gallatin River. DEQ’s permit for Lazy J South is the first new significant discharge permit authorized in the Big Sky area in the last 10 years. An analysis by Upper Missouri Waterkeeper concluded that, should the project proceed, it would cause an increase of approximately 20% in the existing

septic discharges to the streams in Big Sky.

This potential for increased pollution is especially alarming, as the groundwater in Big Sky and the Gallatin River is already showing serious signs of stress from nutrient pollution. Notably, in recent years, the Gallatin has suffered from extremely harmful, noxious algae blooms that are in direct response to the rapid and poorlyplanned development at Big Sky. The algal blooms are not just unsightly; The growth has serious negative effects on macroinvertebrate life, decreases the oxygen concentration in the river, and increases the water temperature. In turn, this impacts aquatic life and fish populations.

The only way for DEQ to justify issuing the Lazy J permit was to ignore the current scientific and the developers ignored this progress.

The issuance of the pollution permit by DEQ is a failure to comply with the law and protect the Gallatin River. But the practice of ignoring existing, cumulative impacts is a widespread problem at DEQ and is causing water quality problems across the state.

Due to this failure, MEIC and Upper Missouri Waterkeeper have taken DEQ to court to force the agency to conduct a proper analysis of the impacts associated with the development of Lazy J South, as well as other developments across Montana. Upper Missouri Waterkeeper has been an essential partner in bringing this challenge to court. For more information, please visit www. meic.org or www.uppermissouriwaterkeeper.

information about the Gallatin and the existing, cumulative impacts from discharges that are already severely damaging the river. What is truly remarkable about the issuance of this sub-standard pollution permit is that community members in Big Sky recognize the pollution problem and have recently made progress in working to protect the Gallatin River with the creation of the Big Sky Canyon Sewer District. The District’s purpose is to encourage discontinuing septic systems and shifting to sewage treatment at centralized facilities. DEQ

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be ignored for political expediency and personal interest? Why have the legislature go through the cumbersome and time-consuming process of holding hearings, accepting public comment, debating merits, and passing laws that they fully expect to be upheld, if the governor can simply read the political tea leaves at the end of the day? What precedent does it set for a governor to pick and choose the laws he is willing to enforce? MEIC and its partners will not let this stand. MEIC intends to challenge the Gianforte Administration’s decision not to enforce the Bad Actor law in court. The governor does not have the ability to ignore a mandatory duty imposed on his office by the people of the State of Montana through its legislative process. Plain and simple.

We have also set up a petition to Gov. Gianforte, available at bit.ly/BadActorBaker, which requests that he reverse course and enforce the law. We encourage you to let Gov. Gianforte know that you disagree with his decision to let a “Bad Actor” off scot-free.