The Monitoring and Data Management Bureau's primary purpose is to gather data on statewide air quality and water quality conditions and trends, interpret it, and develop and circulate related information products to resource managers and the public for the purpose of controlling air and water pollution. We can be thought of as an environmental information services bureau. There are several approaches to environmental control. The Department's program for the prevention, abatement, and control of air and water pollution includes infrastructure, regulation and enforcement, training, education, research, monitoring and assessment, and planning. Our bureau is responsible for the monitoring and assessment components of the program and our monitoring information products provide the cornerstone for all of the other components.
Monitoring detects emerging problems before they become critical.
Perhaps the most important role of monitoring is to report to the public, as objectively as possible, the true condition of the environment. Citizens of Montana not only have a right to a clean and healthful environment, they have a right to know the condition of that environment. Without this knowledge, there is no common basis of understanding and citizens cannot effectively influence their elected representatives. Monitoring air and water quality conditions in a state as large as Montana is a significant challenge. With nearly 150,000 square miles of territory, travel times are long and logistics difficult.