Upper Missouri Waterkeeper filed a lawsuit in Montana’s Gallatin County District Court after a state agency rejected its petition to limit storm water pollution county-wide.
The complaint was filed in response to a decision by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) not to designate Gallatin County as a storm water pollution control authority, reported the lawsuit.
The group submitted a petition requesting the DEQ to make the designation of Gallatin County and Portions of Madison County as a non-traditional municipal separate storm water system MS4 summer of 2021, but DEQ rejected the petition.
The MS4 permit would require Gallatin County to develop a storm water pollution control program that regulates polluted runoff in high-growth areas, according to the lawsuit. DEQ has already categorized two primary subwatersheds of the Gallatin as impaired (Lower Gallatin and the West Fork Gallatin).
Upper Missouri Waterkeeper has asked the court to set aside DEQ’s decision denying the storm water petition and has asked DEQ to conduct a new analysis of the petition that complies with state law and the Montana Constitution.
“More than a dozen local waterways in Gallatin County— from the West Fork Gallatin in Big Sky to Bozeman Creek and the East Gallatin in the Valley— have been degraded by intensive and continuous development patterns for nearly a decade,” said Upper Missouri Waterkeeper Executive Director Guy Alsentzer in a news release, reported Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “It’s past time DEQ takes proactive steps to help local decision-makers plan for future growth in a way that won’t pollute local water quality.”
According to Bozeman Daily Chronicle, in an emailed response, staff with Montana DEQ wrote that the group’s petition was denied.
“Yellowstone National Park and Lee Metcalf Wilderness are not urbanized, and the designation of such areas as a large, non-traditional MS4 goes well beyond the purposes of state regulations and the intent of the Federal Clean Water Act,” agency officials wrote back.
Instead, DEQ did evaluate the petition to see if it could result in a more localized expansion, reported Bozeman Daily Chronicle.