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Preview—Park County Environmental Council V. Montana Department Of Environmental Quality: A Test Of Montana’S Right To A Clean And Healthful Environment, Liz M. Forster
Public Land & Resources Law Review
The Supreme Court of Montana will hear oral arguments in this matter on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, at 9:30 a.m. in the Mazurek Justice Building in Helena, Montana. This case challenges a key provision of Montana’s bedrock environmental law—the Montana Environmental Policy Act (“MEPA”)—and tests the judicial power of the state’s constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment to issue injunctions to prevent environmental harm.
Montana Environmental Information Center V. Department Of Environmental Quality, Anthony P. Reed
Montana Environmental Information Center V. Department Of Environmental Quality, Anthony P. Reed
Public Land & Resources Law Review
The DEQ renewed a 1999 MPDES Permit on September 14, 2012 that allowed Western Energy Company to discharge pollutants from the Rosebud Mine into streams. Environmental groups MEIC and the Sierra Club sued, arguing this violated both the Montana Water Quality Act and federal Clean Water Act because the DEQ’s interpretation of its own regulations that exempted waters with ephemeral characteristics from water quality standards was arbitrary and capricious. The district court agreed, but the Montana Supreme Court reversed. It held the DEQ’s interpretation was lawful and remanded for further fact finding to assess how the DEQ applied the interpretation …