Groups sue Montana over discharge permits

BOZEMAN (AP) — Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Montana contending the state is failing to enforce the Clean Water Act by allowing at least 30 discharge permits to lapse for at least a year.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/10FKlVm) that Bozeman-based Cottonwood Environmental Law Center and Montana River Action filed the lawsuit Wednesday against the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in Gallatin County District Court.

The groups said letting the permits lapse allows companies to potentially pollute state waters, and that Montana officials are illegally granting administrative extensions. Two power plants and two refineries are on the list.

"The defendants have misused the administrative extension to indefinitely escape reviewing and updating existing permits as required by the Montana Water Quality Act," the lawsuit said.

State Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Lisa Peterson told The Associated Press on Saturday the agency couldn't comment until it reviewed the lawsuit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on discharges based on human-health standards that can change as water-processing technology improves. The groups said the federal agency requires renewals every five years so the permits reflect the latest science to protect human health.

Montana has the authority to oversee the permits on behalf of the EPA, but the environmental groups contend the agency isn't meeting its legal requirements in overseeing the permits.

The groups cite several examples of permits they say the state needs to update. They said the Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives petroleum refinery in Laurel has a permit to dump oil, grease, sediment, ammonia, sulfides and other material into the Yellowstone River.

The groups argue that the permit expired in 2004, and the company submitted a renewal application in 2007 that the state has yet to act on. That means, the group said, the refinery is operating under its 1999 permit.

Corette Steam Electric Power Plant and ExxonMobile Refinery in Billings, and Lewis & Clark Steam Electric Power Plant in Sidney are other entities the environmental groups said are operating with older permits.

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Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com