MONTANA ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION CENTER and SIERRA CLUB, Plaintiffs and Appellees, v. MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, Defendant and Appellant, and WESTERN ENERGY COMPANY, Defendant/Intervenor and Appellant

-- DA 18-0110 MONTANA ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION CENTER and SIERRA CLUB, Plaintiffs and Appellees, v. MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, Defendant and Appellant, and WESTERN ENERGY COMPANY, Defendant/Intervenor and Appellant. Oral Argument is set for Wednesday, March 13, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. in the Courtroom of the Montana Supreme Court, Joseph P. Mazurek Justice Building, Helena, Montana. The Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC) and Sierra Club challenged a permit renewal the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued to Western Energy Company (WEC) that allowed WEC to discharge pollutants from the Rosebud Mine into surrounding waters. The First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, determined DEQ had improperly reclassified affected streams as ephemeral, and subject to reduced water quality standards, without following the proper reclassification procedure. The court also took issue with the way in which the permit dealt with the Rosebud Mine’s “outfalls,” the places where pollutants may be discharged. It concluded that the permit arbitrarily did not require all outfalls to be monitored in the same way or on the same schedule and that DEQ provided no scientific basis for its decision that not all outfalls needed to be monitored. DEQ and WEC have appealed the decision and ask this Court to overturn it. DEQ argues that it did not reclassify any waters and that it followed the applicable laws and administrative rules regarding the outfalls. The WEC argues that the decision should be overturned because the District Court issued its decision while an administrative appeal was pending, and because the court relied on information which was not available to DEQ at the time it issued the permit. MEIC and Sierra Club argue that the District Court’s decision was correct and the Supreme Court should uphold it.

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