How Water Quality is Protected in Montana

Water quality is a term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water, usually in respect to its suitability for a particular purpose. Although scientific measurements are used to define water’s quality, it’s not as simple as saying “this water is good” or “this water is bad.” 

The quality of water can be degraded by pollution that enters the stream from both human activities and natural causes. 

• Point source pollution - Has a single, identifiable source of contamination that enters the environment through a confined conveyance such as a ditch, tunnel, smokestack, or pipe. 
• Non-point source pollution - Comes from various sources such as runoff from land, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification. The runoff picks up and carries away natural and man-made contaminants as it moves, then finally deposits them into receiving bodies of water - lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwaters 

Monitoring is the gathering of information or data on a regular basis. The data gathered can be analyzed and serve as an indication of the stream’s health, used to educate the community on the impacts of human activities (positive and negative), make important watershed management decisions, and help understand the effects of these decisions.

Montana’s greatest natural resource is the water resource. Montana’s water is managed through a complex system of federal, state and local authorities. Water management involves people who allocate water supplies, issue permits, regulate the resource according to state and federal laws, and enforce laws when violations occur. Management also includes legislative and administrative decision-making. Lack of water management would result in greater contamination of drinking water, more pollutants in surface water, and a greater likelihood of water being unavailable to all users – from fish to farmers and from recreationists to rural and urban drinking water systems. 

Ranchers need clean water for their stock, farmers need it for their crops, every employer needs it to stay in business, and every living thing needs it for life... The law needs to be clear to protect water quality and the rights of landowners."

In Montana, our waters are classified into different categories based on the beneficial uses that they support (e.g. drinking, swimming and recreation, agricultural water supply). The Montana Water Quality Act integrates both national (Federal Clean Water Act) and state policy. The Montana Water Quality Act provides guidelines to prevent, abate, and control pollution of Montana waters consistent with national standards.  

•  A Guide to Montana Water Quality Regulation 
•  Who Does What with Water Resources 

A combination of legislation, management, and administrative decision-making influences how waters are protected.

 If a problem is discovered, MT DEQ enforces most water laws, but EPA retains the final authority to implement any aspect under the auspices of the Federal Clean Water Act. MT DEQ responds to suspected or identified water quality violations by monitoring and inspecting discharges. MT DEQ can initiate enforcement by issuing a letter of violation and requiring compliance through administrative action. Judicial action through the state or federal court system can also occur.  

The Montana Constitution has one of the strongest environmental protections listed in a state constitution. It stipulates that the state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations. The state has regulations that promote protection while accommodating human uses. Montana’s authority extends to almost all water types (excluding ponds/lagoons used for treating pollutants or irrigation disposal waters not returned to state waters).  

• The framers of Montana’s 1972 Constitution made it clear that a close relationship exists between the state’s natural resources and a high quality of life. Article IX of the Constitution identified this important relationship by designating the state government as custodian of Montana’s water resources. 

• Section One of Article IX assigned shared responsibility for protection and improvement of Montana’s water to “the state and each person…for present and future generations.” The Montana legislature bears responsibility for “the administration and enforcement of this duty,” including protection of “environmental life support systems” and for preventing “unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources.”  

• Clean Water Act (CWA) – The CWA, enacted in 1972, gave states the authority to protect the chemical, biological and physical aspects of the nation’s water bodies. CWA regulates the discharge of pollutants into waters by establishing national standards and permit guidelines. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees the act’s implementation.  

•  Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) – The SDWA was passed in 1974 to protect drinking water from contamination. The purpose of SDWA is to establish national enforceable standards for the quality of drinking water distributed by public water systems, and to guarantee that they monitor to ensure compliance with these standards. 

• The SDWA is concerned with public health associated with safe drinking water while the CWA has a broader goal of clean, fishable, and swimmable waters. Both statutes set minimum standards for water quality that must be met by all states. In Montana, both laws are administered by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on non-reservation lands. The federal EPA or tribe administers the laws on tribal lands. 

In Montana, the Department of Environmental Quality (MT DEQ) administers the Water Quality Act and has the primary responsibility of implementing the Act. The MT DEQ is responsible for collecting information related to water pollution preventions and control, they conduct and encourage research relating to water pollution, they advise, consult and cooperate with groups to formulate pollution prevention and control plans, they issue, suspend, revoke, modify or deny permits to discharge waste into state water, they monitor, inspect, and enforce water quality laws, and they assess water quality, recommend water quality standards for pollutants, and develop maximum pollutant loads for certain waters.    

MT DEQ administration of the Water Quality Act is overseen by the Board of Environmental Review (BER), a quasi-judicial body appointed by the Governor that provides policy guidance to MT DEQ. Montana has a non-degradation policy that does not allow further degradation of state waters. The non-degradation policy defines three levels of water protection that stipulate what degradation, if any is allowable to state waters.  

To ensure non-degradation, pollutant limits (standards) are established by the board. Standards ensure water quality metrics meet needed beneficial uses. Standards can either be numeric (a specific number or concentration of a pollutant) or they can be narrative (e.g. no increases above naturally occurring concentrations). 

Because many activities potentially discharge pollutants that would degrade state waters, dischargers must apply for a discharge permit and be authorized under a state or federal permit. Some activities do not require a discharge permit (e.g. normal household waste on private property, disposal by solid waste management systems that are licensed under MT law). MT DEQ requires permit holders to collect and report water quality data.

MT DEQ conducts water quality assessments to prevent, abate and control water pollution. By collecting and analyzing rigorous data sets DEQ identifies if surface water bodies or segments are threatened. If a water body is below the water quality standards for the designated beneficial use, then the water body is deemed “impaired” and it is placed on the 303(d) list, under the Federal Clean Water Act. Revisions to the 303(d) list occur every 2 years and are included in MT DEQ  Integrated Reports . Water bodies may be removed from the list if sufficient credible data show the water body is no longer threatened nor impaired. Water bodies can also be removed if there is a lack of sufficient credible data to support the listing. Thus, ample opportunities exist for citizen-based watershed groups to conduct water quality monitoring to ensure sufficient credible data are available when needed.   

 In order to determine the allowable amount of pollutants into a water body that will not degrade a system, MT DEQ develops Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) assessments. TMDL assessments are specific to each watershed and each pollutant, and take multiple years to complete. A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards. It allocates pollutant loadings among point and nonpoint sources and is most often expressed as a mass per unit loading of the pollutant, e.g., tons/year of sediment. 

Due to the length of time and resources involved in TMDL assessments, as well as all the other water quality components overseen by MT DEQ, there are limited resources for collecting data in many watersheds and water bodies of Montana. This results in further opportunities for citizens and watershed groups to assist with data collection efforts and help discover water quality issues.   

Citizen-led watershed groups play an important role monitoring water quality in their watersheds and taking part in stewardship of their local waters. In addition to volunteering to collect water quality data, citizens can contribute to sustaining Montana’s water quality through petitions, public hearings/notices, lawsuits, and citizen oversight. Public hearings and public notices are an important part of water quality decision making and occur for a number of reasons including 1) Administrative rule making (e.g. if the board proposes a rule more stringent than federal guidelines), 2) Water classification and standards (e.g. if water classifications will change, public input is required), 3) Permitting (e.g. MT DEQ’s decisions about permit applications are publicly available), 4) Environmental Review (public hearings are part of the review process), and 5) all hearings concerning violations are public. 

MMW’s goal is to promote knowledge and stewardship of aquatic resources by teaching local citizen volunteers the skills needed to gather accurate, non-biased water quality information. 

The objective of MMW is to support water quality monitoring and protect our waters. MMW dedicates time, personnel, and funding to assist citzen-led water quality monitoring in Montana. MMW provides technical and scientific assistance in addition to funding for laboratory analyses and field gear.