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Enviro Groups Petition DEQ to Limit Nutrient Pollution on Big Hole River

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Friday, April 11, 2025

Two conservation groups are petitioning the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to designate the Big Hole River, a treasured southwestern Montana fishery, as impaired for nutrient pollution.The groups argue that an impairment designation will lead the state to put the Big Hole on a “pollution diet” to limit the nitrogen and phosphorous that are contributing to the fishery-damaging algal blooms that have become a recurrent issue.Common sources of nutrient pollution can include runoff from fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides as well as poorly maintained septic systems and manure from livestock.Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and the Big Hole River Foundation are basing their petition on five years of data collection that has found consistently high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus at multiple sites on the Big Hole. The groups also incorporated a macroinvertebrat, or bug, study and an overview of the state and federal laws governing the beneficial uses of waterways in their petition.“There’s no disputing that there’s a nutrient pollution problem on the Big Hole River, with neon-green algal blooms fueled by nutrients cropping up each summer,” Upper Missouri Waterkeeper Executive Director Guy Alsentzer wrote in a release Wednesday about the petition. “Thankfully, the State of Montana has the tools to restore rivers impaired by nutrients, like the Big Hole. We now need to hold the State accountable for taking the necessary steps to designate the river as impaired, develop a pollution diet, and work to reduce pollutant sources that are causing degradation.”Overgrown algae can depress dissolved oxygen levels, harming fish and some of the macroinvertebrates they eat. In some areas, an increase in algae is linked to reduced biodiversity and diminished ecological resilience. The petitioners would like the DEQ to acknowledge that portions of the Big Hole are exceeding established water quality thresholds, recognize they “are not fully attaining their aquatic life or recreational uses” and designate the waterway as impaired for nutrient pollution. The petition also notes the historically low flows, high water temperatures, and declining fish populations the Big Hole has seen in recent years. The 32-page petition comes as anglers and researchers attempt to understand the factors contributing to a marked decline of trout populations in a handful of cold-water fisheries in the Jefferson Basin. In 2023, FWP biologists recorded historically low numbers of brown trout along some stretches of the Big Hole. Anglers and conservationists floated a number of possibilities that may be contributing to the decline, ranging from pathogens and drought conditions to angling pressure and unmitigated pollution. Save Wild Trout, a nonprofit formed in 2023 to understand which factors merit further investigation, has described the 2023 southwestern Montana fishery “collapse” as a “canary in the coal mine moment.”Wade Fellin, a longtime fishing guide who serves as Save Wild Trout’s program director, described the impairment designation petition as part of his group’s larger effort to help the Big Hole recover from chronic and acute threats.“The Big Hole is suffering blow after blow — extremely low flows prompting mid-season fishing closures, and miles-long algal blooms,” Fellin said in the release. “We must do what we can now to make measurable improvements for the river, and that should start with an official impairment determination to clean up the nutrient pollution that is degrading water quality and aquatic habitat.”A spokesperson for DEQ wrote in an email to MTFP on Wednesday that “nutrient conditions and other algae growth factors appear to be at levels conducive for algae growth in the Big Hole River and several of its tributaries.”The agencies noted that it has been monitoring algae levels on the Big Hole since 2020 and that streamflows and temperatures play an important role in both overall fishery health and algae growth.Under existing law, DEQ is required to provide an initial determination on the petition within 60 days, although Montana lawmakers are debating a bill by House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, that would stretch the agency’s response time to 180 days. House Bill 684 passed through the House last month and cleared an initial Senate vote on Wednesday.Researchers are just embarking on the second year of that research, which will continue for at least three years, according to FWP spokesperson Morgan Jacobsen. One component of that research is examining how flows, water temperature, angling and disease may be contributing to adult fish mortality. A second prong will evaluate tributaries’ contribution to the recruitment of juvenile fish into the adult population. Finally, FWP is examining disease threats with the hope of developing a way to proactively support fish health. To facilitate that research, biologists have tagged trout in the Big Hole, Ruby, Beaverhead and Madison Rivers. FWP is asking anglers who catch a tagged trout to fill out a report online to aid researchers.This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Two conservation groups are petitioning the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to designate the Big Hole River as impaired for nutrient pollution

Two conservation groups are petitioning the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to designate the Big Hole River, a treasured southwestern Montana fishery, as impaired for nutrient pollution.

The groups argue that an impairment designation will lead the state to put the Big Hole on a “pollution diet” to limit the nitrogen and phosphorous that are contributing to the fishery-damaging algal blooms that have become a recurrent issue.

Common sources of nutrient pollution can include runoff from fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides as well as poorly maintained septic systems and manure from livestock.

Upper Missouri Waterkeeper and the Big Hole River Foundation are basing their petition on five years of data collection that has found consistently high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus at multiple sites on the Big Hole. The groups also incorporated a macroinvertebrat, or bug, study and an overview of the state and federal laws governing the beneficial uses of waterways in their petition.

“There’s no disputing that there’s a nutrient pollution problem on the Big Hole River, with neon-green algal blooms fueled by nutrients cropping up each summer,” Upper Missouri Waterkeeper Executive Director Guy Alsentzer wrote in a release Wednesday about the petition. “Thankfully, the State of Montana has the tools to restore rivers impaired by nutrients, like the Big Hole. We now need to hold the State accountable for taking the necessary steps to designate the river as impaired, develop a pollution diet, and work to reduce pollutant sources that are causing degradation.”

Overgrown algae can depress dissolved oxygen levels, harming fish and some of the macroinvertebrates they eat. In some areas, an increase in algae is linked to reduced biodiversity and diminished ecological resilience. The petitioners would like the DEQ to acknowledge that portions of the Big Hole are exceeding established water quality thresholds, recognize they “are not fully attaining their aquatic life or recreational uses” and designate the waterway as impaired for nutrient pollution. The petition also notes the historically low flows, high water temperatures, and declining fish populations the Big Hole has seen in recent years.

The 32-page petition comes as anglers and researchers attempt to understand the factors contributing to a marked decline of trout populations in a handful of cold-water fisheries in the Jefferson Basin.

In 2023, FWP biologists recorded historically low numbers of brown trout along some stretches of the Big Hole. Anglers and conservationists floated a number of possibilities that may be contributing to the decline, ranging from pathogens and drought conditions to angling pressure and unmitigated pollution. Save Wild Trout, a nonprofit formed in 2023 to understand which factors merit further investigation, has described the 2023 southwestern Montana fishery “collapse” as a “canary in the coal mine moment.”

Wade Fellin, a longtime fishing guide who serves as Save Wild Trout’s program director, described the impairment designation petition as part of his group’s larger effort to help the Big Hole recover from chronic and acute threats.

“The Big Hole is suffering blow after blow — extremely low flows prompting mid-season fishing closures, and miles-long algal blooms,” Fellin said in the release. “We must do what we can now to make measurable improvements for the river, and that should start with an official impairment determination to clean up the nutrient pollution that is degrading water quality and aquatic habitat.”

A spokesperson for DEQ wrote in an email to MTFP on Wednesday that “nutrient conditions and other algae growth factors appear to be at levels conducive for algae growth in the Big Hole River and several of its tributaries.”

The agencies noted that it has been monitoring algae levels on the Big Hole since 2020 and that streamflows and temperatures play an important role in both overall fishery health and algae growth.

Under existing law, DEQ is required to provide an initial determination on the petition within 60 days, although Montana lawmakers are debating a bill by House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, that would stretch the agency’s response time to 180 days. House Bill 684 passed through the House last month and cleared an initial Senate vote on Wednesday.

Researchers are just embarking on the second year of that research, which will continue for at least three years, according to FWP spokesperson Morgan Jacobsen.

One component of that research is examining how flows, water temperature, angling and disease may be contributing to adult fish mortality. A second prong will evaluate tributaries’ contribution to the recruitment of juvenile fish into the adult population. Finally, FWP is examining disease threats with the hope of developing a way to proactively support fish health.

To facilitate that research, biologists have tagged trout in the Big Hole, Ruby, Beaverhead and Madison Rivers. FWP is asking anglers who catch a tagged trout to fill out a report online to aid researchers.

This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

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Photos courtesy of

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Group participates in previously unthinkable mile-long swim after US made key progress to clean polluted riversHundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution. Continue reading...

Hundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution.“It’s overwhelming to see this happen, it’s unbelievable to see swimmers swim past us now,” said Doug McConnell, the main organizer of the event.McConnell, a Chicago area native and co-founder of A Long Swim, had been pushing the city’s leadership for more than a decade to allow a swim in the river, the first such event since 1927, having witnessed the blossoming urban river swimming movement take hold in cities such as Paris, Munich and Amsterdam.“Seeing that really planted a seed, and we are thrilled we are finally doing this and that it has got global attention – we had applications across the US and 13 countries,” said McConnell, who hopes this will become an annual event and spread to other US cities.McConnell didn’t leap into the water on Sunday but is an accomplished long-distance swimmer, having traversed the English Channel, which he recalls as “14 hours of getting slapped around”, and swam around the island of Manhattan, all in aid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) fundraising.“I think the water conditions will surprise people because it will be cleaner than they expect,” he said. “The psychology of so many Chicagoans was that the river is untouchable – this isn’t true and we are proving this today.“My grandfather grew up in Chicago and I think what his reaction to all of this would be because the river had an absolutely toxic reputation then. It was repulsive, absolutely untouchable.”The Chicago River has a long history of being meddled with. Each year it is dyed green for St Patrick’s Day and, infamously, in 2004 the tour bus of Dave Matthews Band released 800lbs (363kg) of human waste through a bridge grate that landed on top of a boat of mightily unfortunate sightseers traveling on the river.Indeed, Chicago initially grew by treating its slow-moving river as an unfettered dumping area. Sewage and other waste was routinely funneled into the river, including carcasses and effluent from huge slaughterhouses that clustered beside the waterway – to the extent that a section of the river is still called “bubble creek” due to the gas given off by the rotting sludge on the riverbed.The river became so foul, causing deadly outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, that the city took the extraordinary step in 1900 of reversing the river’s flow by creating a system of canals and locks, to avoid Chicago’s source of drinking water in Lake Michigan becoming poisoned. Today, the 156-mile (265km) river meanders from Lake Michigan through Chicago so its water ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico.“We treated the river like it was part of the sewer system, which haunted us,” said Margaret Frisbie, the executive director of Friends of the Chicago River. Riverside buildings typically didn’t even have windows overlooking what was known as “the stinking river”, with the ribbon of water shunned as part of Chicago’s civic fabric.“Until just a few years ago people would’ve thought it would be outrageous to jump into it,” Frisbie said. When Friends of the Chicago River formed in 1979 with a vision to restore the ecological function of a river that could be enjoyed by people and wildlife alike, “people thought we were crazy,” she said.Yet the 1970s was a seminal decade for environmental protection in the US, with the passage of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – bringing new restrictions on pollution dumped into rivers, streams and lakes. Where once American rivers were so toxic they could catch fire, a new era had begun that would allow US cities to think more affectionately of their foundational waterways.In Chicago, the slaughterhouses shut down, new sewage and storm water infrastructure was built and teams of volunteers, as they do to this day, toiled to clean up trash.Dozens of species of fish returned, as did beavers and snapping turtles such as Chonkosaurus, an enormous, locally famous specimen sometimes seen lounging by the river.In 2016, a riverside public pathway was completed to knit the downtown area to its adjacent water, allowing Chicagoans in new bars and restaurants to gaze upon a river that is no longer a fetid soup, a place clean enough that people can now swim in it. On 12 September, it was announced that Friends of the Chicago River won an international prize in recognition of the river’s transformation.“So many people are on rental boats on the river these days – it’s heaving with people,” Frisbie said. “People want to work near the river, live near it, be on it. It’s remarkable to see people have that connection with it again.“This swim is emblematic of all the work we’ve done over the past 50 years to improve our rivers. It shows you can change the destiny of any natural resource and do some good. It feels that’s something we need right now.”America’s rivers may now increasingly be places of scenic recreation rather than industrial sacrifice zones, but this does depend on the vicissitudes of politics. The Trump administration is narrowing the application of the Clean Water Act, which helped ensure healthier rivers, and is similarly weakening rules on what coal plants and factories can dump in waterways. The bad old days may be a thing of the past, but ongoing progress isn’t guaranteed.“If the federal government retreats from enforcement, things could slide backwards,” Frisbie said. “It’s incumbent on cities, countries and states to be vigilant. Our river is beloved now – people want to use it, wildlife needs it, we need it. We want to maintain that rather than see it roll back.”On Sunday, though, few swimmers were mulling such weighty topics as they lined up in robes, serenaded by the skirl of the Chicago police department’s bagpipes and drum, before stripping and vaulting into the river, bobbling flotation devices tethered to their waists.Organizers had zealously tested the water in the weeks before the event, finding that the river was consistently safe in terms of EPA standards on fecal coliform – essentially, poo in the water. The river was scanned, too, for any potential obstructions to the swimmers.Among the participants for the first river swim in 98 years – all strictly vetted to ensure they could complete the course – was Olivia Smoliga, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went on to win a gold medal in backstroke at the 2016 Olympic games.Open water swimming is a different beast to the lanes of a pool, but Smoliga’s competitive spirit compelled her to speed around the river loop, even though it was not intended to be a race.“You have people throwing elbows there – you have to watch out for fingernail length, everything,” she said. “The fact they were able to clean up the river and do such great work, to have this full on race happen, is trippy. But it’s really cool.”

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Brewton, 8 August 2025, Harmful Algae.DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2025.102940 This work was funded by the Florida Department of Emergency Management, United States Environmental Protection Agency, South Florida Program Project, and the NOAA Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms program. Historical studies included within the review were funded by the NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program and Ecological Forecast Program, NOAA RESTORE Science Program, National Science Foundation, “Save Our Seas” Specialty License Plate and discretionary funds, granted through the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation, and a Red Wright Fellowship from the Bermuda Biological Station. Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

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