EPA APPROVES MONTANA’S METHANE WASTEWATER STANDARDS

Southeastern Montana’s farmers and ranchers won an important round in their fight to protect their watersheds from the potential impacts of coal bed methane development when the Environmental Protection Agency today approved regulations that would protect water quality in Montana’s rivers and streams.

 The EPA action upheld a policy adopted in 2006 by the Montana Board of Environmental Review (BER) that prohibited methane water discharges from degrading existing water quality. The BER submitted the revised standards to the EPA for approval, which the agency has finally done.

“Today’s decision by the EPA is a victory for farmers, ranchers and Montana citizens who depend on Montana’s good-quality water,” said Mark Fix, Tongue River rancher and chair of Northern Plains Resource Council’s Coal Bed Methane Task Force. “This decision shows how important it is for citizens to stand up for and protect their good-quality water from irresponsible energy development, and it’s a testament to the integrity of the Clean Water Act.”

Northern Plains Resource Council is a grassroots conservation and family agriculture organization. Many of its members are farmers and ranchers who could be affected by water-quality degradation caused by methane development.

 In 2003, Northern Plains and a coalition of irrigator groups petitioned the BER to establish numeric water quality standards for electrical conductivity (EC) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) — both of which are found in high concentrations of the water pumped from beneath the ground to release methane gas. Water with high levels of EC and SAR can harm crops by changing the chemistry of farm soils and reducing crop yield. As a result of the 2003 petition the BER adopted Northern Plains’ numeric standards, but inserted an exemption from Montana’s non-degradation policy that permitted the industry to pollute to the maximum limit allowable the Tongue, Powder, and Little Powder Rivers, and Rosebud Creek.

 In March 2006, the BER removed the exemption and instead established that protecting the southeastern Montana watersheds’ water quality was state policy.