Farmers and ranchers along the Tongue River need good quality water to irrigate their crops, said Mark Fix, a rancher from the Tongue River Valley and Chair of NPRC s Coal Bed Methane Task Force. Allowing a methane company to degrade our good water with millions of gallons of poor quality water threatens our vested property rights in the water in violation of a number of Montana laws. Fidelity s permit allows for the discharge of 1600 gallons a minute, or 2.3 millions gallons a day, of wastewater into the Tongue River. The SAR of samples taken from Fidelity s methane wells range from 17.1 to 56.4, with an average of 24.8. Soil productivity generally declines when SAR levels exceed 3, and no Montana plants can survive an SAR exceeding 12.
Sodium is a dispersing agent, and it causes soil structure to disintegrate.
Sodium becomes more concentrated in soils as evaporation and transpiration occur, leaving the salts behind, particularly in clay soils like those found in the Tongue River Valley. The Water Users argue that the DEQ is hindering their ability to fulfill their contracts by allowing Fidelity to discharge poor quality water into the Tongue River. MEPA requires that state agencies complete an environmental review before approving permits that will have an impact on the environment. Under MEPA, an environmental review must consider cumulative impacts and alternatives. Though the DEQ completed a checklist environmental assessment, before issuing Fidelity a discharge permit, the groups say that there is no basis for a checklist environmental assessment under MEPA, and that the DEQ should have conducted a more thorough environmental impact statement.