The following is an article about what it really means to Montana fly fishers, and why we have to become ever more aware of what is going on around us. Even as we seek the peace a trout stream offers us.

It's a funny balance. Peace is really what we're all looking for. Peace and quiet. And the joy of connecting with a fish on its own terms, right where it lives.

But now the areas where the trout lives are being encroached upon so very fast. We are all gasping for breath.


'East Gallatin River in Center of Growth'

By Walt Williams, Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer

6-4-06

Several times during the summer, Dale Spartas has watched the East Gallatin River turn as green as a frog pond, its waters blooming with algae.

Sometimes there's the smell, the stink of an open sewer.

Both are partly the result of the city's nearby wastewater treatment plant, which can dump 5 million gallons of treated effluent into the river each day.

Now the city is planning to more than double the capacity of its treatment plant to accommodate Bozeman's rapid growth. It's a future that Spartas, who lives next to the river on Nelson Road, doesn't look forward to.

"If this river goes in the tank, this is one of the great trout fisheries that there ever was, and it's a major water source for the whole valley," he said.

Gallatin County is rapidly growing, with one out of every 10 residents having moved here since 2000, and running through the center of that growth is the East Gallatin.

Starting near Mount Blackmore and winding west towards Three Forks, the East Gallatin and its tributaries cross four planning jurisdictions, each with a different set of rules about streamside development.

The river doesn't get as much attention as its larger and more spectacular sibling, the West Gallatin. But judged in terms of impacts on the most people, the East Gallatin is easily the more significant.

Bozeman homeowners will notice the impacts when they pay higher sewer rates to fund a bigger and cleaner sewer plant. And the course of the river through the county's urban core will shape development as Bozeman and Belgrade expand outward.

Part of the challenge will be preserving a waterway well known for its great fishing, duck hunting and wildlife habitat.

Its popularity may be part of the problem. Local environmental groups are concerned by some of the riverside development already taking place on the East Gallatin.

Scott Bosse of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition has pictures of several riverside homes, including one where the streamside vegetation was cleared away, steps were built along the bank and a discarded Christmas tree was carelessly tossed into the river.

"There are a lot of good reasons why not to allow this sort of development to occur," he said.

SEWER PLANT

The largest single source of potential pollution along the East Gallatin is Bozeman's wastewater treatment plant.

The plant currently has the capacity to process 5.8 million gallons of waste a day, plant superintendent Tom Adams said. But with all the new people it is quickly reaching that capacity, so the city plans a series of expansions over the next 15 years to expand its capacity to 13 million gallons a day.

Not all of the treated wastewater will be dumped into the river; some of it will be directed to irrigation and other uses.

The efluent that is released will be cleaned to a higher standard than it is today.

At this point, the effluent is cleaned to remove most pollutants. However, nitrogen and phosphorus -- biological nutrients that, in large concentrations, can cause algae blooms that remove oxygen from water -- are not removed.

One of the planned upgrades at the plant would those nutrients, a move mainly designed to meet tougher regulations that are expected to come down from the state.

"We are tying to assess where the state is going in its new nutrient criteria," Adams said.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality is taking a second look at its rules, Bob Bukantis, program manager for the agency's Water Quality Standards Division, said.

This summer, DEQ is polling river users, showing them pictures of rivers with various levels of algae growth and asking them at what level the algae would affect their recreational enjoyment.

"It basically comes down to a question of how green is too green," Bukantis said.

The agency hasn't studied nutrient levels in the East Gallatin, but the conservation group Montana River Action commissioned a study that found phosphorus levels higher than existing state standards.

It also found high levels of coliform bacteria colonies, although the DEQ only regulates bacteria levels in groundwater, not surface water.

MRA has requested the city hold a public hearing on the issue, according to president Joe Gutkoski. The group wants to discuss how the county as a whole, not just Bozeman, will tackle wastewater treatment in the future.

The wastewater treatment plant isn't the only source of pollution on the river. Another source is runoff from farms, golf courses and lawns. But as "non-point source" pollution, the runoff isn't regulated by the state.

"The treatment plants of the state get singled out as the major source of the problem when in reality they are only a fraction of the problem," Adams said.

RIVERSIDE HOMES

Some of the hottest real-estate around Bozeman and Belgrade is near the East Gallatin, with high-priced homes quickly popping up along its banks.

So far they are few in number, but according to Bosse of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, they appear to fall in a pattern: Streamside vegetation is cleared for a better view of the river; structures are erected on the banks; and homes are built well within the floodplain.

GYC is preparing a guidebook developers can use when working on riverside projects, spelling out the specific local, state and federal regulations that apply along the East Gallatin.

Gallatin County, for example, requires a 300-foot setback from the high water line for subdivisions but not for individual lots.

Bozeman requires a 100-foot setback for subdivisions. Belgrade also requires a 100-foot setback and Manhattan requires a 15-foot setback.

There have been calls at a statewide level for some uniformity to setback requirements, although Byron Roberts of the Montana Building Industry Association isn't convinced the idea is sound.

The problem with uniform setbacks is they don't address the individual reasons why a stream or section of a stream needs protection, he said. Such regulations should be based on empirical data.

"You have to look at the reason why you originally created the setback requirements," Roberts said.

Zoning is another tool that could be used to limit riverside development.

The proposed East Gallatin Zoning District would limit the number of homes that could be built around the stretch of river between Bozeman and Belgrade, if it is ultimately adopted by the county commission.

The draft district regulation sets a minimum density of one home per 20 acres, although densities up to one home per five acres would be allowed as a conditional use.

The low densities were chosen by the landowners there as the development pattern that best fits area's rural character, Joe Sabatini, one of the leaders of the effort, said.

"They just want to protect the river and its corridor," he said.

Spartas wants the river protected, too, and for him the issue is personal. He watched the river he grew up on, the Rippowam River in Connecticut, change from a healthy stream into what he said is now a "biological desert."

"I don't want to see a replay of that here," he said. "We got people moving here in droves. We can make the right choice."

...

Yes we can.