We're Basically Slitting Our Own Throat: Montana Rolls Back Water-Quality Standards

Montana is famous for its waterways, speckled with sparkling high-alpine lakes and ribboned with trout-filled streams. It’s also the birthplace of several major rivers, including the Missouri, and home to Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake east of the Mississippi. But now, the Montana Legislature, with the Environmental Protection Agency’s backing as of October, is rolling back protections for these waters.

Montana was once a leader when it came to regulating pollution in its waterways. In 2014, it became the first state in the country to impose numeric water-quality standards...