Montana Stock Growers Association Files Suit on Water Contamination
Author: Cheyenne Leach, Montana Stockgrowers Communications Coordinator
Montana Stock Growers Association Files Suit on Water Contamination
Cheyenne Leach
Montana Stockgrowers Communications Coordinator
Helena, Mont. (November 11, 2024) – Last week, the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA) filed a motion to intervene in the case Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, Food & Water Watch, and Center for Food Safety vs. Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). This litigation began in November of 2023 when the plaintiffs sued the DEQ regarding the renewal of its Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) General Permit. The plaintiffs assert that Montana’s revised CAFO General Permit, issued November 15, 2023, lacked monitoring provisions to track and measure water pollution. This plaintiff’s petition and complaint pushes for a much more sweeping system of water monitoring, sampling, and reporting to take the place of the current provisions in the CAFO General Permit.
CAFO operators invest time, money and other resources into ensuring compliance with the CAFO General Permit. Compliance includes submission of a Notice of Intent package, and inclusion of facility design, operation, and monitoring requirements. The general permit requires CAFO operators to conduct detailed monitoring in and around their facilities and operators are required to provide notice of any discharge of any pollutants to DEQ within 24 hours of that discharge. DEQ additionally has the ability to impose strict groundwater monitoring directives at any point if they perceive a potential source of pollution to groundwater.
“MSGA’s members who hold CAFO general permits will bear the brunt of increased water monitoring, sampling, and reporting. Such provisions would create operational and financial strains to operators as well as our members at large,” shared Raylee Honeycutt, MSGA Executive Vice President. “The livestock industry in Montana, while large in economic terms, is managed and held up by a relatively small number of family-owned businesses, all of whom rely in some way on CAFO operators. The effects of this litigation will trickle down to all ranchers, livestock producers, and livestock markets in Montana, causing uncertainty and harm.”
MSGA is proud to represent livestock producers across the state who work hard to ensure compliance with the CAFO General Permit. This litigation will create exacerbated costs for permit holders which will negatively impact the livestock industry.
