Nearly four years after the Montana Department of Environmental Quality levied a $516,567 fine against the current owner of a now-shuttered gold mine, the state’s environmental regulator has come to an agreement with the Bozeman man on the receiving end of the illegal mining penalty.

On May 23, DEQ entered into a consent decree with Luke Ployhar, who purchased the Zortman mine in northcentral Montana in the early 2000s to further his interest in geology and mining. A self-described rockhound who enjoys panning for gold but makes a living as a film producer and special effects creator, Ployhar had hoped to recover valuable minerals from the site. He also hoped to turn it into a profit-generating recreational resource.

Both sets of plans were complicated by a legacy of contamination that has sent acid mine drainage into the Little Rocky Mountains watershed for decades. Acid mine drainage is an unfortunate byproduct of the cyanide heap-leach operation that Pegasus Gold Corporation used in the 1980s and 1990s to pull 2.5 million ounces of gold from the Little Rocky Mountains.

As of 2022, the effort to clean the Zortman and Landusky open-pit mines had cost an estimated $80 to $85 million, most of which has come from government coffers following Pegasus’ bankruptcy in 1998. Environmental regulators don’t see an end to the expensive treatments required to clean the waterways that come into contact with the open-pit mines.

The Fort Belknap Indian Community, which intervened in the lawsuit tied to the fine DEQ levied, opposes the settlement agreement. Tribal representatives argue that the agreement, which calls for Ployhar to pay $200,000 over five years, doesn’t match the seriousness of the violations or the site’s ongoing environmental concerns. FBIC also argues that many of the long-term impacts of the former mines and Ployhar’s actions are borne by tribal residents. The Fort Belknap Reservation borders the mine on three sides. 

“This area lies within our ancestral homelands, and we have a responsibility to protect our lands, waters, cultural resources, and future generations,” FBIC President Randall Werk Sr. said in a statement. “Significant environmental concerns remain unresolved, water treatment continues indefinitely, and important questions regarding the full scope of environmental damages have not yet been fully evaluated.”

Ployhar told Montana Free Press last week that he’s pleased with the resolution of the lawsuit. He said he was taken aback at how long and costly the litigation was and maintains that the soil disturbance on his land was not ill-intentioned. Per the terms of the agreement with the government, Ployhar and his company, Blue Arc, do not admit to any wrongdoing or to violating any laws.

“Throughout the litigation, and continuing to today, we firmly believe that our conduct — in all respects — complied with applicable law,” Ployhar and Blue Arc said in a statement.

DEQ declined to comment on the agreement. 

Ployhar said the recreational plans he once had for the site — ATV trails, campgrounds, cabin rentals, hunting, tours of the old mine infrastructure, etc. — are on pause. He added that he visited the site over Memorial Day weekend with his family and some friends and described it as a beautiful, underappreciated area.

The 1,062-acre site is listed for sale for $52.5 million.

“Although significant amounts of gold and silver were mined during the tenure of previous mining companies, lead geologists estimate that only 20% of the gold and silver [was] harvested, leaving plenty of reserves for investors or operators,” according to the listing, which highlights the property’s reclaimed pits, timbered ridges and clearcuts. “Zortman Landusky Gold Resource Property not only offers a huge opportunity for operators and investors but is also a unique recreational property.”

The post What to know about the state’s settlement with Zortman mine owner appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Most Montanans say they support local law enforcement working with federal immigration enforcement agencies, a new Montana Free Press-Eagleton poll found.

While local law enforcement entities are not inherently required to enforce federal immigration law, they can choose to temporarily detain a person of interest on behalf of a federal immigration enforcement entity or share relevant information with an agency like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol. Local jurisdictions can also receive funding and additional resources when they partner with federal immigration entities. 

The poll, which surveyed more than 800 registered voters in late April and early May, found that, regardless of several high-profile disputes on the matter in Helena and Gallatin counties, 59% of respondents at least mostly support local law enforcement working with agencies like Border Patrol and ICE.

In late January, amid mounting public pressure, the Helena City Commission passed a resolution directing the Helena Police Department not to enter into partnerships with ICE. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen then issued a cease-and-desist order, alleging the resolution violated a state law banning sanctuary cities. Two months after enacting the resolution, city commissioners voted to rescind it. While commissioners attempted to collaborate with Knudsen on an amended version of the resolution, Knudsen ultimately declined the invitation, saying that any local immigration policy would be subject to an investigation. City officials have seemingly halted their efforts to reestablish the resolution since.   

In April, Knudsen sent a similar cease-and-desist to Gallatin County Attorney Audrey Cromwell, alleging that the county prosecutor’s office had a policy not to recognize ICE as a law enforcement agency entitled to receive certain confidential information. Cromwell has maintained there is no such policy and, earlier this month, the Montana Supreme Court agreed to weigh in on the issue. 

The MTFP-Eagleton poll also asked respondents whether they approve or disapprove of the Trump administration’s approach to immigration — the same question a previous MTFP-Eagleton poll asked in December and January. In the winter poll, conducted before federal immigration officers killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota and before Border Patrol arrested Froid diesel mechanic Roberto Orozco-Ramirez, 49% of respondents said they strongly approved of the president’s approach to immigration, while 8% said they somewhat approved, 4% said they somewhat disapproved, and 37% said they strongly disapproved. Asked the same question in late April and early May, the numbers stayed the same.

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MTFP reporter JoVonne Wagner contributed to this story.

The MTFP–Eagleton poll surveyed registered voters in Montana who were invited by text message to complete an online survey. Data was collected from April 29, 2025, to May 7, 2026.

Participants were recruited using a probability-based method, meaning they were randomly drawn from the state’s registered voter file so every voter had a known chance of being invited. The results were weighted during analysis to reflect the demographics of Montana’s registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. You can find more about the methodology here.

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Twenty-four organizations, including one that serves tribes in Montana and the surrounding region, on Tuesday joined a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that grants supporting farmers and ranchers were unlawfully terminated. 

In March, the USDA canceled 49 of 50 Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access Program grants designed to support “underserved” farmers and ranchers. 

At least three projects in Montana were affected: Piikani Lodge Health Institute, headquartered on the Blackfeet Reservation, lost a nearly $9 million grant to improve operations for farmers and ranchers in the region. The Chippewa Cree Tribe in north-central Montana lost a nearly $6 million award to purchase land and train young farmers and ranchers how to manage it. And South Dakota-based Four Bands Community Fund lost an $8.5 million grant to train and financially support at least 25 low-income agricultural producers in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. At the time, Montana-based awardees described the terminations as “devastating.” 

In several termination letters obtained by Montana Free Press, the USDA wrote that the grants had been canceled because the associated projects “involved discriminatory preferences based on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and wasteful spending that did little to further lawful agricultural land purchases.”

A lawsuit against the USDA seeking reinstatement of the grants was originally filed in June 2025, after several other grants were terminated following President Donald Trump’s executive orders deprioritizing climate action and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. In August 2025, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the USDA to reinstate six grants awarded to the original plaintiffs. This week, 24 additional organizations, including Four Bands Community Fund, which serves Montana and other states in the region, joined the lawsuit. 

The new plaintiffs are represented by lawyers from a variety of advocacy organizations, including FarmSTAND, Farmers’ Legal Action Group and Earthjustice. They argue that the USDA’s March grant terminations were unlawful and have caused irreparable harm.  

“Plaintiffs are faced with layoffs, abandoning projects and investments, reputational harm in the community for failing to deliver promised programs, and drastic reductions in their organizations’ operations, or in some cases, having to shutter their organizations entirely,” the complaint reads. 

USDA representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. 

The plaintiffs allege that the USDA terminated the grants “without individualized review but rather based on vague allegations that the projects were not aligned with the President’s newly stated goals of eliminating funding for DEI and climate initiatives — without any effort to determine whether the projects could be brought into line.”

The plaintiffs specifically allege that in 2023, Four Bands Community Fund was approved for an $8.5 million grant to increase access to land and capital in Mountain Plains tribal areas, but in March received notice that the grant had been terminated, in part because the project “violated equal protection principles by selecting beneficiaries based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or sex.”

The plaintiffs describe the Four Bands grant termination as “particularly arbitrary and capricious,” and argue that the federal government’s reasoning “ignores the unique status of tribes, tribal citizens and tribal lands” and “fails to acknowledge tribal status is not a race-based classification,” as would be subject to DEI programming. It’s well established in federal Indian law that tribal citizenship is a political classification, not a racial one. 

Representatives of Four Bands Community Fund could not immediately be reached for comment.

The plaintiffs are asking the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to restore the grant awards, which total $127 million, and prohibit the USDA from terminating the grants in the future.

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The Montana Land Board voted Monday to overhaul the process it uses to evaluate land-swap proposals. This is the first time the Land Board has made sweeping changes to Montana’s land-swap policy in more than 20 years, and it happened with limited public notice.

State Auditor James Brown introduced the proposal. Jack Connors, the chief lawyer working for the State Auditor’s Office, described the change as a “red-tape reduction” initiative that eliminates “unnecessary bureaucracy.” Brown added that it will address water- and corner-crossing related disputes and create multiple opportunities for interested parties to comment, thereby adding transparency to the process.

But opponents pointed out that the proposal itself didn’t incorporate a robust public notice and comment period. They argued, unsuccessfully, for more time to evaluate it. 

“This is big,” said Kevin Farron with Montana Wildlife Federation. “This is opaque. This is something that was given to the public seven days ago in its full form … A 30-day scoping and comment period should be the very least that we should be getting out of this.”

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s motion to add a 30-day comment period to Brown’s proposal failed on a 3-2 vote. At the close of Monday’s meeting, the board voted Brown’s proposal through, 4-0. Gianforte abstained from the final vote. 

Land swaps allow state land managers to exchange public land for private land of “equal or greater value” to the state, which uses revenue from its trust land to support public schools and other government programs. There are more than 5 million acres of state trust lands in Montana that are administered by the Land Board, in coordination with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The Land Board, which is composed of Montana’s top five elected officials, has the authority to approve exchanges, which are often used to consolidate land ownership in areas where public and private land are interspersed in a checkerboard pattern that creates public access challenges.

Key pieces of Brown’s plan adhere to the existing policy and the state laws from which they flow. But there are some notable shifts in the use of consultants and in the process for evaluating a property’s economic and recreational value.

One section of the policy, for example, specifies that while trust land should generally “be valued for its highest and best use,” considerations will be made for “limiting factors.” It instructs the DNRC to apply a “commercially reasonable discount” for state lands lacking a documented legal access — e.g., land that is in the checkerboard. 

Another change pertains to a state law specifying that state lands with bodies of water that have significant public use — or access to navigable lakes and streams — can only be swapped for private land with similar water resources. Brown’s policy narrows the definition to specify that the state water resources must have a “documented history of being meaningfully used for crop irrigation, livestock watering, fishing, recreational floating activities or waterfowl hunting” to be subject to that law.

Multiple opponents appeared to reference the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange in their comments as evidence of what can go wrong when powerful landowners use paid consultants to broker deals with public agencies. That agreement was executed with help from a pair of real estate consultants and a public relations professional hired by the Yellowstone Club, the private ski and golf club near Big Sky and one of the parties to the exchange. The Forest Service authorized the swap in January of 2025. 

“Recent third-party brokered land exchanges in Montana have produced deals where the public received high-elevation terrain of limited utility, while giving up productive lower-elevation land and established recreational access,” argued Russell Fruits with the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers during comment on the proposal. “Those outcomes are not accidents. They’re what happens when no one is in the room to independently be accountable to the public.”

The proposal drew support from several well-known lobbyists who frequent the halls of the Capitol, including Raylee Honeycutt with the Montana Stockgrowers Association, Clayton Elliott with Trout Unlimited, Ben Lamb with the Montana Conservation Society and former Democratic lawmaker Tom Jacobson, who lobbied for eight entities during the 2025 Legislature, including the Taylor Luther Group, which represents the interests of some of Montana’s highest-profile businesses and landowners.

“Montana’s Constitutional guarantees are unchanged: land values must at least be equal [and] acreage as close to equal as possible,” Jacobson said. “Land swaps are not inherently bad. Controversy arises from lack of early public input, and this policy directly fixes this. I ask for a do pass.”

Discussion among the all-Republican Land Board was tense during the board’s hourlong meeting. Brown enumerated his attempts to engage DNRC in the policy revision and expressed frustration with the agency’s unresponsiveness. Gianforte interrupted 10 minutes into Brown’s comment, directing him to stop repeating himself and wrap up his thoughts.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen supported the proposal, arguing that Brown and his office had used “thoughtful outreach” to garner support from unlikely allies.

“Clayton, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a time when you and stockgrowers may be on the same sheet of music,” he said, referring to Clayton Elliott with Trout Unlimited. “I think this puts the power back where it needs to be, which is with the five of us right here and not inside the bureaucracy [of the DNRC].”

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen said little during the Monday meeting. Susie Hedalen with the Office of Public Instruction voted to approve the change, arguing that issues arising from the use of consultants “can always be proposed for us to review again.” 

The post With limited public involvement, Montana Land Board overhauls land-swap process appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Over the course of his long life, media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner bought vast stretches of land in Colorado, New Mexico, Montana and Nebraska and managed them for conservation. That work is expected to continue, even after Turner’s death on May 6 at age 87.

One of the Turner family’s largest properties, the 363,000-acre Armendaris Ranch in south-central New Mexico, is shielded from development by the nation’s second-largest permanent conservation easement. According to a statement on Turner Enterprises’ website, the rest of the roughly 2 million-acre ranchland empire will “continue to be protected, limiting future development and parcellation.”

“Turner Ranches, the Turner Foundation and his other nonprofits intend to do stewardship and restoration on those lands,” said Jonathan Hayden, executive director of New Mexico Land Conservancy, which holds the conservation easement on the Armendaris Ranch. Turner “will be known for being an innovator in the conservation space and being willing to try new things, from reintroducing desert bighorn to bison restoration — things that take a lot of capital and vision.”

Who owns the West?

Turner, who bought his first ranch in 1987, spent the following decades acquiring 12 more in six Western states. He focused on buying properties that were suitable for raising bison, intending to use the animals to restore the land to its original state as well as supply meat for his restaurant chain, Ted’s Montana Grill. By all accounts, his land purchases were about more than easements, a tool some wealthy landowners use to avoid taxes. Turner said publicly and on his website that his properties would continue to pay taxes to contribute to local communities. He also viewed his land as a way to bring back some species that are at-risk in the West and across the nation.

He made headlines with vast properties like the Vermejo Ranch in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, which he bought from the oil company Pennzoil. For years, his ranch managers worked to restore the overgrazed and overused 558,000-acre expanse, ultimately bringing back more than 1,200 bison and reviving riparian areas along 30 miles of streams and more than a dozen lakeshores.

In 1997, Turner created the Turner Endangered Species Fund, which reintroduced Mexican wolves at his Ladder Ranch in New Mexico and black-footed ferrets on the Bad River Ranch in South Dakota as well as on Vermejo. He also brought westslope cutthroat trout to his Flying D Ranch in southwest Montana.

The Armendaris is focused on “sustaining wildlife species in a time of unprecedented drought,” Hayden said. Operators there have restored populations of imperiled desert bighorn sheep, reintroduced the endangered Bolson tortoise and the aplomado falcon, and protected habitat for more than a million seasonal and migratory bats in the famous Jornada Bat Caves.

Turner “will be known for being an innovator in the conservation space and being willing to try new things, from reintroducing desert bighorn to bison restoration — things that take a lot of capital and vision.”

The ranch “was both a keystone project and a catalyst that demonstrates how integral private land conservation can be to preserving broader ecoregions,” Hayden said, noting that other landowners have followed Turner’s lead. Since the completion of the Armendaris easement, the New Mexico Land Conservancy has facilitated two conservation leases totaling 120,000 acres on state public lands and another five on private land.

Ted Turner makes a deal

But Turner’s ranches also concentrated on economic output, raising upward of 45,000 bison, as well as hosting sustainable timber harvest and high-end guided hunting, fishing and ecotourism, according to Turner’s websites. In 2021, he created the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture with the goal of “conserving ecosystems, agriculture, and rural communities,” especially on his 80,000-acre McGinley Ranch, which straddles the Nebraska-South Dakota border.

“He understood from a practical standpoint that commerce and conservation have to go hand in hand,” said Lesli Alison, CEO of Western Landowners Alliance. “If commerce is pitted against conservation, nature will lose every time.”

This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation and the Mighty Arrow Family Foundation.

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Great Falls biorefinery Montana Renewables can now send hundreds of thousands of gallons of wastewater to disposal sites in nearby Pondera County after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a permit application earlier this month.

Pondera County officials told Montana Free Press that they are considering an appeal.

The company previously sent its wastewater to a disposal site in Idaho and to other out-of-state locations, according to regulatory documents and press releases. This new permit allows wastewater to be dumped at two unused oil wells that are less than two hours away, rather than in another state.

The wells are owned by Montalban Oil and Gas. The Cut Bank company requested the wastewater permits from the EPA. Montana Renewables is the only intended user of the wells.

Last week, a Montana Renewables spokesperson dodged a question about how or when it might use the disposal sites.

“We are committed to responsible management of our wastewater and have taken steps to significantly reduce the amount over the past two years. Moving forward, we will continue to review options and make the best choices for the environment and business,” Montana Renewables spokesperson Lanni Klasner said in an email to MTFP last week.

Asked to be more specific about how or when the sites would be used, Klasner declined to comment. Patrick Montalban, CEO of Montalban Oil and Gas, didn’t return a request for comment.

Montalban sought the permits specifically for the disposal of Montana Renewables’ wastewater, which could amount to as much as 232,000 gallons per day.

The permits had been under consideration by the EPA for nearly three years and faced pushback from area residents and public officials, who voiced concerns about the long-term impacts of injecting hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater deep underground.

At a public hearing last fall at Conrad High School, EPA officials heard from a line of opponents that included Pondera County commissioners, Conrad’s mayor, local residents and tribal officials. About 6,000 people live in the county.

The injection sites, more than 3,400 feet underground in the Madison Aquifer, have previously been used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas operations. Permit documents describe the underground water as of poor quality. The EPA determined that this region of the aquifer is “not a valuable potential source of drinking water” now or in the future.

Pondera County Commissioner Zane Drishinski told MTFP last week that the county is exploring appeal options following the EPA decision.

“We’re highly disappointed in their decision, of course,” Drishinski said. “We have a 30-day window to appeal starting last Friday [May 1] at 4:30.”

Montana Renewables is in the middle of expanding its biorefinery, which primarily produces sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This type of jet fuel is made from agricultural materials, like seed oils. It still needs to be blended with conventional jet fuel and is currently used in a relatively small number of flights, but the federal government has said SAF has the potential to reduce airline emissions and has incentivized its production.

The Montana Renewables expansion is funded by one of those incentives — a $1.6 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The conservation group Golden Triangle Resource Council, along with its parent organization Northern Plains Resource Council, said in a statement to MTFP that its members are “deeply disappointed” in the EPA decision to grant the permit. But the group’s statement went on to criticize Montana Renewables for not making the on-site wastewater facility a priority.

“Montana Renewables publicly committed to building that facility in July, 2025; but no construction has yet begun on that, and Montana Renewables refuses to “take dumping off the table,” the statement said in part. “With the EPA’s recent decision, will Montana Renewables do the right thing and carry through on its commitment to the community? Or will the recipient of so many city, state, and federal breaks opt for the fast buck at the expense of our underground water? We will be watching.”

As part of its expansion, Montana Renewables plans to build a wastewater treatment facility at its Great Falls site. In late September, Klasner told MTFP that engineering work had started on that part of the development.

Asked last week about progress on wastewater treatment, Klasner said the company has been “purchasing some necessary equipment and working with engineering consultants as we continue to evaluate and develop the facility.”

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As school election ballots started coming back to the Yellowstone County Elections Office on Tuesday, it was clear that voters are still getting the hang of Montana’s new voting laws — especially that mail voters must now write their birth year on their ballot’s return envelope.

Yellowstone County Elections Administrator Dayna Causby said her office sent more than 1,500 notifications to voters explaining that either their return envelopes were either missing a signature or, more often, their birth year in the envelope’s four pre-printed orange squares below the signature line. The latter was first required of Montana voters in 2025 municipal elections, and next in 2026 school elections, which wrapped up Tuesday night. 

Absentee ballots for the primary election are due to be mailed to electors on the absentee list Friday. Voters’ learning curve, judging by Causby’s observations, is still pretty steep.

“I have people who voted last fall who still forgot their birth year. I have an election worker in my office who didn’t include her birth year,” Causby said. Of her office’s 1,531 potentially rejected ballots, roughly 216 were resolved before her office started counting school election ballots late Tuesday. Voters had until 5 p.m. Wednesday to clear up any problems so their votes would count.

With the start of primary election voting this week, county election administrators told Montana Free Press, there are new requirements that voters will need to adjust to. People voting in person will need to provide an officially recognized form of ID — Montana driver’s license, Montana ID card, military ID, tribal ID, passport, concealed carry permit, or a student ID issued by a Montana University System school or a member school of the National Collegiate Athletic Association — to receive a ballot. A voter can also use a current utility bill, or bank statement or government document showing a name and current address, combined with a photo ID that includes the voter’s name.  

In prior elections, any photo ID was sufficient.

Ravalli County Elections Administrator Regina Plettenburg noted that the laws regarding voter registration in the final days of an election period have also changed, and primary voters needed to be prepared. No longer can Montanans register to vote the Monday before Election Day. Rather, county election offices will be open all day the Saturday before Election Day to register new voters, or to make registration changes like new addresses. Registration to vote in state elections on Election Day will now stop at noon, Plettenburg said, after years in which new voters could register until the polls closed on Election Day. County elections officials asked for the change after multiple years of last-minute voter registrations. The old registration rules guaranteed that anyone in line to register to vote by 8 p.m. on Election Day would be able to register and vote after the official close of voting. In some instances, late-registration lines weren’t resolved until early on the day after Election Day.

Multiple voting rights groups have sued Montana’s secretary of state to overturn the new voter ID and registration laws, but the lawsuit is ongoing, meaning the new laws could be thrown out or blocked by court order any time during the 2026 election cycle.

The birth-year requirement was the first new law to roll out because municipal and school elections are conducted exclusively by mail, meaning no accommodation was necessary for late in-person registration. 

The post New voting rules in play as primary election begins appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Montanans who regularly eat fish harvested from some of the state’s most popular angling destinations may want to reconsider their diet. State agencies are directing people to limit their consumption of certain fish species found in the state’s rivers and reservoirs contaminated with PFAS, a class of chemicals linked to cancers and other serious health risks.

On April 23, a trio of state agencies updated the Montana Sport Fish Consumption Guidelines with new advisories that take into account concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which have been dubbed “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment. 

According to those guidelines, women and children should avoid eating large walleye and northern pike from Fort Peck Reservoir, as well as brown trout from the section of Prickly Pear Creek downstream of the now-shuttered ASARCO lead smelter in East Helena. On a handful of other rivers and reservoirs, such as the East Gallatin River, Nelson Reservoir and Yellowstone River, the guidelines advise limiting consumption of other fish species ranging from channel catfish to mountain whitefish and smallmouth bass.  

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality did not make any of that immediately clear in its press release. Instead, it wrote that PFAS are considered “emerging contaminants of concern,” and highlighted PFAS-associated health risks alongside the dietary advantages of eating fish. “While it is important to be aware that eating fish caught in Montana may expose individuals to low levels of PFAS in some waterbodies, eating a moderate amount of a variety of fish can provide significant health benefits for many people,” the agency wrote. 

The calculations that underpin the state’s recommendations have come under scrutiny following a yearslong investigation by Montana PBS. According to a 30-minute documentary reported and produced by the station’s Anna Rau, Gov. Greg Gianforte intercepted the monitoring report, delaying updates to the consumption advisory designed to help Montanans understand where game fish are safe to eat, where they should be consumed sparingly, and where they’re too contaminant-laden to eat at all. 

According to Rau’s reporting, DEQ and other state agencies prepared to implement a more stringent standard for fish consumption only to change course when faced with the number of “do not consume” advisories the stricter standard would have generated for popular fishing destinations like Fort Peck Reservoir, the lower Yellowstone River and the middle section of the Missouri River. Just hours before the documentary’s broadcast on April 23, the state released complicated guidance that left Montanans wondering if their local waters are too contaminated with forever chemicals to eat their catch. 

The documentary has anglers like Russ Earl, a Havre resident, concerned. Earl doesn’t plan to eat what he catches when he fishes Fort Peck Reservoir and upstream stretches of the Missouri for catfish, bass, sturgeon, walleye and salmon later this year.

“What bothers me the most is the apparent possible delay and semi cover-up of the original report,” he wrote in a message to MTFP. “Unfortunately, I think this is the tip of the iceberg and more and more studies will find more and more PFAS through our food chain.” 

Earl is not alone in trying to make sense of the state’s response to its own data. To better understand how the Montana Interagency Fish Consumption Advisory Group reached its guidance — and the diet shift that frequent fish consumers should contemplate — Montana Free Press spoke with PFAS experts and state and local regulators. This is what we found. 

THE PFAS-FISH CONNECTION

PFAS are a class of chemicals that manufacturing companies have long prized for their lubricant properties and their ability to resist grease and stains. There are so many of them — up to 14,000 by some counts — that federal agencies have struggled to regulate the chemicals. PFAS are frequently present in nonstick cookware, water-resistant outdoor apparel, personal-care products, food and beverage packaging, pesticides, the biosolids produced by wastewater treatment plants, and a variety of industrial applications, including firefighting foam.

PFAS received the “forever chemicals” moniker because they don’t break down the way other chemicals do. They’re also highly mobile and widespread. According to DEQ, PFAS have been detected in the blood of people and animals around the world.

That’s a problem because PFAS pose serious health threats. According to Julia Varshavsky, an environmental health professor at Northeastern University and member of the PFAS Project Lab, a growing body of research has demonstrated the link between PFAS exposure and low birth weights, pre-term births, high cholesterol and diminished immune response. PFAS exposure is also associated with testicular and kidney cancer.

Researchers pay attention to the accumulation of PFAS in fish — freshwater fish in particular — because fish living in PFAS-contaminated waters are what’s called a bioaccumulator.

“When they get into an animal’s body they distribute to the fat tissue, and then because that gets concentrated and stuck in the fat tissue, the next higher-up animal on the food chain that eats the smaller one will further and further concentrate that PFAS,” Varshavsky said, pointing to fatty, predatory freshwater fish as particularly worrisome bioaccumulators. 

Varshavsky added that the most important PFAS exposure pathways, based on what we currently know, are water and diet. When it comes to fish, she said there are no overarching federal regulations the way there are with PFAS in drinking water, for example. 

Instead, states have developed their own standards that attempt to weigh the PFAS ingestion risks against the health benefits of eating fish, which are a source of lean protein, healthy fats, and essential vitamins and minerals. The result is a patchwork of recommendations. Some states, such as New Jersey and Michigan, have opted for stricter frameworks, some have adopted looser regulations, and some haven’t produced any guidance at all. Montana falls somewhere in the middle.

MONTANA’S FOREVER CHEMICAL GUIDANCE

In Montana, the conversation surrounding PFAS accumulation in fish dates back to 2020 when the state adopted the Montana PFAS Action Plan. That document was designed to reduce or eliminate human health and environmental risks posed by PFAS. It directed the state to identify sources and exposure pathways, to sample fish in PFAS-polluted water bodies and to develop fish consumption advisories.

The bulk of Montana’s monitoring occurred in 2023, when DEQ partnered with Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Department of Public Health and Human Services to collect samples of common game fish at 14 sites located along nine waterbodies where PFAS is a known concern.

Lab results found at least one type of PFAS was present in 78% of the samples submitted. Of the 40 PFAS the lab tested for, the type that appeared most frequently was perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS, a chemical commonly found in firefighting foams used at airports and military bases. Thirty-nine of the 50 fish samples sent to the lab for analysis contained PFOS.

After the concentrations came back, state employees working on the report debated how to interpret the results in order to develop updated fish consumption guidance. Materials submitted to PBS in a public records request reviewed by MTFP show that DEQ contemplated using two different calculations to translate fish-tissue concentrations into the fish-consumption advisories, which are designed to “help ensure that the fish you catch can be a safe part of your diet.”

One standard, based on guidance provided to DEQ by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2024, would have led to sweeping fish-consumption advisories. According to a June 2024 email from DEQ’s toxicologist and included in the PBS FOIA request, the EPA’s formula would have resulted in a different conclusion.

“We find that the PFOS concentrations found in sampled fish end up corresponding to an ‘avoid all consumption’ advisory in all water bodies where PFAS is detected, including some very popular fishing destinations,” DEQ toxicologist Dawn Nelson wrote in the email.

Records show that had the state used the EPA’s standard for safe levels of PFOS — one of the most prevalent forever chemicals — popular game fish like walleye, brown trout, rainbows and smallmouth bass would have been subjected to an “avoid” advisory in certain waterways.

Instead of using that standard, the state decided to use a looser standard recommended by a different federal agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. That standard didn’t result in any broad “do not consume” advisories. 

DEQ defended the use of the looser standard in an email to MTFP, writing that 20 states have used it “or something very similar to it.” Spokesperson Madison McGeffers added that the federal government has found that PFOS levels in fish tissue are trending lower across the U.S.

Asked to respond to allegations that his office interfered with the release of the PFAS fish tissue report, a spokesperson from Gianforte’s office focused on the April 2026 report. “The governor was not involved in the decision as the timing of the release of the report was related to the fact that members of Interagency Fish Consumption Advisory Group reached consensus on using the health guidance value from Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in late 2025,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Rau, with Montana PBS, argues that Gianforte is “splitting hairs” in his response by focusing on the report that came out last month — not the draft report that preceded it. As evidence to support her position, she points to a Feb. 14, 2025, email in which a DEQ employee directs her colleagues not to reach out to stakeholders about the release of the draft report because “the governor’s office may not want us to release the draft report.”

Varshavsky, the PFAS researcher, said Montana is not unique in wrestling with the political implications of PFAS regulation, particularly in the face of burgeoning data-center development. The semiconductors that are integral to data center operations — and the coolant to keep them from overheating via “closed loop” cooling systems — are common sources of PFAS, according to Varshavsky. 

“It shouldn’t be polarizing to say that we need policies that protect public health, but unfortunately it kind of is,” she said. “It’s not necessarily that it’s a [political issue] for regular people, but it has become a political issue in these decision-making contexts where you have industries lobbying lawmakers.”

For her part, Rau said the state’s abrupt course change paired with the concentrations present in Missouri River and Fort Peck Reservoir fish, have crystallized her own views on the issue.

“I wouldn’t in a million years feed my kid a fish out of Fort Peck right now,” she told MTFP. “I just wouldn’t, for safety’s sake.”

The post Are Fort Peck Reservoir fish too polluted to eat? It depends on who you ask. appeared first on Montana Free Press.

State Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy’s abrupt departure from the race for  Montana’s Eastern Congressional District leaves two remaining candidates in the June 2 Democratic primary: Brian Miller and Sam Lux. The winner will join Libertarian Patrick McCracken and possibly independent Mike Eisenhauer in challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Troy Downing in the Nov. 3 general election. Downing was first elected to the seat by a 32-point margin in 2024. 

But no matter who emerges from the primary with the Democratic nomination, political prognosticators agree, they’ll have neither history, money, or momentum on their side in attempting to unseat Downing. 

“I don’t really see a way that a Democrat would win that seat,” said Jessi Bennion, a political scientist who teaches at Montana State University and Carroll College. Based on previous election outcomes and demographics, Bennion said, the district looks “absolutely solidly Republican.”

Bennion is quick to acknowledge that any bid for public office, no matter how quixotic, is “a wonderful, civic-minded thing,” but she also expressed genuine curiosity about why a Democrat might choose to compete in eastern Montana at all.

“What is it that makes someone who doesn’t really have a chance of winning put themselves out there to run for a seat?” Bennion said. “Sometimes you think, are they trying to build their presence within the party? Are they trying to get their name out there to build their name ID?”

Both Lux and Miller shrugged off any suggestion they might have a motive other than winning. Both express confidence that President Donald Trump’s low approval rating, in combination with a historical voter preference for minority-party candidates in midterm elections, will translate to a swell of Democratic votes in November. 

“The political scientists that I’ve heard in Montana,” Miller said, “have no idea what they’re talking about right now.”

WHY IS THE EASTERN DISTRICT SO HARD FOR DEMOCRATS?

Jeremy Johnson, a political scientist at Carroll College, said the Eastern District — which became a distinct congressional seat in its current form in the 2022 elections — was never built to elect a Democrat. 

“It was just generally understood by all the people who participated in the process that this district was not drawn to be competitive. It was essentially drawn as a safe Republican district,” Johnson told Montana Free Press.

In its brief new life, the district has been dominated by Republicans — as was the single at-large congressional district that preceded it going back to 1996. In the 2026 edition of “Big Sky Politics,” elections historian Jon Bennion (Jessi Bennion’s husband) wrote, “the Eastern Congressional District never really seemed to strike Democrats as a viable goal.”

“Incumbent at-large Congressman Matt Rosendale opted to run in the east because of his Glendive and Great Falls connections, and there was little political energy aligned against his reelection,” Bennion wrote of the eastern district’s first election in 2022, when Democratic candidate Penny Ronning lost every county in the district.

There just don’t seem to be many Democratic voters in the district. 

While the state’s Western Congressional District contains urban pockets of reliable Democratic support, the eastern district’s largest cities — Billings and Great Falls — don’t offer Democrats much purchase. 

In Billings, Montana’s largest city by population, 11 of 14 local members of the Montana House of Representatives and six of the city’s seven senators are Republicans. The numbers — at least recently — are even starker in Great Falls, where four of five representatives and all three state senators are Republicans. 

Helena, which in 2025 sent only one Republican among its nine lawmakers to the Montana Legislature, is the district’s most Democrat-friendly city. 

The district also includes five of the seven Native American reservations in Montana, which typically lean toward Democratic candidates. 

Johnson, the political science professor, said a Democrat would have to win “remarkable margins in the cities” and avoid losing by “overwhelming majorities” everywhere else to turn the tables. 

COULD 2026 BE DIFFERENT FOR DEMOCRATS?

Not likely. While Johnson acknowledged that voter disapproval of the war in Iran, high gas prices and Trump’s low approval rating could give Democrats an edge in some races around the country in 2026, those factors aren’t likely to make a dent in the Eastern District. 

“Even with these favorable conditions, it would be an upset for a Democrat to win this district — a significant upset,” Johnson said.

And more potentially competitive races in other areas of the country make donor investments in long-shot campaigns less appealing, undermining Eastern District campaigns even further by starving them of funding, according to Johnson.

“There’s a lot of other districts across the country, including the [Montana] Western District, that would have more favorable demographics for Democratic candidates,” Johnson said. 

That fact shows up on the financial reports for both Democratic candidates in MT-02. As of March 31, Miller had raised about $15,000, according to Federal Election Commission filings. By the same date, Lux had reported roughly $8,000. Each of the four Democratic candidates in the Western District has raised at least ten times more than either Democrat in the east.  

When Downing won the eastern district in 2024, he spent the lion’s share of his $3 million war chest.

Adding to the unlikelihood of closing the money gap is the fact that political donors invested in unseating Downing will likely have an option other than the Democratic primary winner. Independent candidate Mike Eisenhauer, a Great Falls cardiologist, estimates his campaign has gathered the 7,274  signatures necessary to qualify for the November ballot — though he won’t be submitting his final signature haul for confirmation by the secretary of state until May 26. Eisenhauer has already far outpaced the race’s Democratic candidates by raising $208,000, including a $200,000 personal loan from the candidate to his campaign. And the last time an independent ran in the district, it was Billings financial adviser Gary Buchanan who drew the high-profile endorsements, outraised the Democrat — and still came in a distant second to at-large incumbent Republican Matt Rosendale in the then-new district’s inaugural election. 

But regardless of the potential influence of Einsenhauer’s bid, or Libertarian candidate Patrick McCracken’s, political statisticians see no path to a surprise result in November. Election predictor 270toWin highlights five election forecasts. All anticipate Montana’s Eastern District will remain safely Republican. 

SO HOW DO THESE CANDIDATES HOPE TO BEAT THE ODDS?

Miller, a Helena attorney, and Lux, a Great Falls farrier, promote similar platforms, but come from very different backgrounds. Both say their campaign strategies combine social media with lots of driving. Limited funds and a sparsely dispersed Democratic population in the district have left both candidates struggling to find face time with voters. 

During an hour-long April 12 candidate forum in Helena sponsored by the state Democratic Party, the two agreed more than they disagreed, concurring across five separate questions. Both men strongly oppose President Donald Trump and said that, if elected, they would vote to impeach him, work to undo his major policies of the last two years, and try to repeal his tariffs. 

To boost eastern Montanans’ quality of life, Miller and Lux said, they would focus on affordability, health care and policies to support regional agriculture, though their specific policies vary. Miller, for instance, said he wants to increase housing supply through “smart use of government power,” promote a “paradigm shift” in the health care industry away from profit incentives, and increase revenue for Montana farmers and ranchers by investing in regional food-processing hubs. Lux said he wants to incentivize selling homes to Montana residents rather than to out-of-staters, build satellite health care clinics in small towns, and pass policies including country of origin beef and pork labeling and right to repair, which would allow farmers to repair their own equipment without going through a licensed dealer. 

On the campaign trail, both first-time candidates have had a hard time organizing large-scale events. Instead, they rely on modest town hall gatherings, coffee shop meet-and-greets and social media. 

Lux said he tries to connect with as many people as possible during his frequent travels as a farrier.

“I normally head into a little coffee shop or something while I’m there, hang out for my lunch hour,” Lux said. “And I’ll put it out on like my social media stories and say, ‘hey, for anybody who’s in this area that would like to ask your candidate a couple of questions, feel free to stop on by.’”

Miller said he attends as many events as he can, but hasn’t been able to travel as much as he’d like. 

Regardless of their ideological similarities and parallel campaigns, the two are otherwise vastly different characters.

Miller, a self-described “nerd,” recommended a 400-page nonfiction book about reducing the national debt during a recent candidate forum. 

“We need evidence-based, rational approaches to our problems. That’s something I just like. I like solving difficult problems,” Miller said. 

Lux, in turn, held up a red scarf onstage to illustrate a story about his union ancestors.

“My great-grandfather died on Blair Mountain fighting for union rights back in the day, working as one of the rednecks,” Lux said, referencing the largest labor uprising in American history, which took place in West Virginia in 1921.

Miller and Lux see each other frequently at campaign events. Neither has slung mud at the other. Miller said it’s been that way since they first met early in their path-crossing campaigns. 

“We were both kind of like, ‘uh, oh wow, you’re crazy enough to do this type of thing?’”

The post No one thinks a Democrat can win Montana’s eastern U.S. House seat — except the two Democrats facing off for a chance to try  appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Democrats in Montana’s U.S. Senate race are struggling mightily to keep up with the fundraising of independent candidate Seth Bodnar and Republican Kurt Alme, both of whom reported having roughly a million to spend after the first federal fundraising period. 

Alme is in a walk-off primary against two candidates, Charles Walking Child Sr. and Lee Calhoun, both of whom have zero dollars to report. Bodnar is gathering signatures to qualify for the November election and doesn’t have a primary.

Wednesday marked the deadline for the campaign finance reports for all congressional candidates. Records show the five Democratic U.S. Senate hopefuls holding a combined $131,759 cash on hand, with roughly $104,000 belonging to Reilly Neill, a former state legislator from Livingston who has been campaigning since November 8, 2024.

Bodnar, the former University of Montana president who registered his candidacy March 4, leads all-comers with $1.14 million. As an independent, Bodnar must gather 13,327 signatures from qualified voters to make the November ballot. He has until May 26 to get those signatures to local election offices.

Bodnar’s ledger includes receipts totaling $26,050 from six political action committees, four of which were players in previous federal elections for Montana Democratic candidates. Way Back PAC, League of Conservation Voters Action Fund and The American Association for Justice PAC previously backed former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and two-time Western District House candidate Monica Tranel. ActBlue, the small-donation conduit for Democratic campaigns is also present. 

With the exception of ActBlue, PACs in Bodnar’s report aren’t showing up in the records of Montana Democrats running for Congress this year.

Because of contribution limits, direct donations to campaigns aren’t where PACs make their biggest impact in elections. The biggest impact comes from independent expenditures. 

Alme, who registered his candidacy eight minutes before the March 4 deadline, reported having $908,956 to spend. He is the former U.S. attorney for the District of Montana twice appointed by President Donald Trump and backed by U.S. Steve Daines. Montana’s senior Republican senator withdrew his candidacy in the last minutes before the deadline, and then lent Alme an endorsement and campaign staff.

“Democrats still believe in democratic choice — that’s why we have a slate of working-class candidates running to improve the lives of everyday Montanans,” said Emily Marburger, Montana Democratic Party executive director, in a prepared Thursday statement about the fundraising totals. “As big, corporate money pours in for wealthy elites like a fence-sitting independent and a MAGA hand-picked successor, we are proud that our candidates for U.S. Senate are traveling the state, meeting with Montanans, and earning every vote and dollar.”

Marburger’s statement continued: “We’re excited for the upcoming election and looking forward to helping the winner of the Democratic primary win in November.”

The last time Montana Democrats in a U.S. Senate race posted less than $150,000 for the first quarter of an election year was 1988 (incumbent John Melcher and Bob Kelleher combined for $144,059). That election was the first win for former Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns.

Once the primary election is over, money will flow to the Democratic candidate if that candidate has a chance of winning, former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who was a longshot challenger to Burns in 2000, told Capitolized.

“I didn’t have any chance of winning. I didn’t have the support of the Washington D.C. insiders or even our elected officials back there. And I’d raised a couple hundred thousand dollars and it was August, the year of the election. So, I went on TV. I was all by myself. I bought TV [ads] in August, and Burns didn’t go up until September. I raised a hell of a lot of money and lost by [3.3]%.” 

Four years after losing to Burns, Schweitzer was elected governor.

The money brought in during the first few months of Montana’s competitive Western District U.S. House race was a little more balanced. Republican Aaron Flint led all filers with $429,399 in the bank. His Republican challenger Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen posted $253,387 cash on hand. Al Olszewski, a former state lawmaker from Kalispell, posted $282,121 cash on hand.

A quarter of Flint’s funds come from political action committees, including several with direct ties to Montana politicians. U.S. Rep Ryan Zinke’s PAC, formally titled “SEAL PAC Supporting Electing American Leaders PAC,” Sen. Tim Sheehy’s Send in the SEAL PAC, Sen. Steve Daines’s Big Sky Opportunity PAC and the Leadership in Action PAC, chaired by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, are among the 20 PACs on Flint’s ledger.

Democrat Ryan Busse was second among all candidates for cash on hand, with $368,145. Busse was also the Democrat’s 2024 candidate for governor. Sam Forstag reported $212,542. There are 15 PACs, mostly identified as labor PACs, supporting Forstag. There were two major party candidates who reported having less than $100,000 by the filing deadline: Russ Cleveland, with $65,102, and Matt Rains, with $46,411.

A candidate must file a finance report if they spend or receive $5,000. No Libertarian or independent in the Western District race hit the reportable minimum.

For Democrats, the finances in the Eastern District resembled the Senate ledger. Incumbent Republican Rep. Troy Downing had $445,919 to spend, including $132,000 from PACs. His closest competitor was independent Michael Eisenhauer. A Great Falls cardiologist, Eisenhauer reported $133,710 cash on hand. The Democrats in the race, Sam Lux, Brian James Miller and Jonathan Windy Boy, reported a combined $2,675.

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