1990 Farm Bill Forum 



Proceedings 



Tom Beck 



Chairperson 



Senate Agriculture Committee 



Legislative issues Affecting IViontana's 

 Natural Resources 



I sit on the Environmental Quality Council. The 

 last interim we studied the forest industry in 

 depth trying to come up with some solutions to 

 the water quality problems that were being gen- 

 erated by some forest practices. Our conclusion 

 was not to put something in the codes that's 

 going to mandate to the people, but to give 

 them some incentives to do proper practices. 

 What we wound up with is that any private 

 landowner who's going to do a forest practice 

 should notify the Department of Forestry or De- 

 partment of State Lands before the project 

 begins. The Department of State Lands will 

 consult with this individual on his forest 

 practice, give him some direction on where to 

 build roads, and how to log in a proper per- 

 spective. 



The House and Senate passed a resolution 

 asking the no-bum policy in our park system 

 and our wilderness system be looked at. What 

 we found when trying to defend West Yellow- 

 stone and Cooke City from fires was that maybe 

 there was a point where that fire should have 

 been deterred in such a dry season. I hope the 

 Forest Service and the Park Service will take a 

 look at what the state legislature did recom- 

 mend about the no-bum policy. We didn't ask 

 that it be completely eliminated, we just asked 

 for some adjustments in it. 



In the mining industry we passed several other 

 pieces of legislation. One of them is that there 

 will not be an exclusion of five acres or more for 

 the small miner. This has been reduced to two 

 acres on plots or mines for reclamation on that 

 ground. This reclaims some of what we call the 

 "small miners" who are using water or what- 

 ever means to placer mine gold. We also 

 exempted any small miner from a cyanide lead 

 type of process mining. They've got to comply 

 with the same permitting processes as the large 

 mines, no matter who or what they're doing. 



Another bill that I sponsored was Senate Bill 

 310. It revised the Middle Mines Tax that is put 



on miners on gross proceeds. What that bill did 

 was put mines on an even playing field with the 

 Department of Revenue. There was a large 

 discrepancy between what the assay repx)rt 

 valued the ore at versus the ore at the smelter 

 site. There was this continual battle between the 

 Department of Revenue and the mining indus- 

 try. I think both parties felt good after the bill 

 was written because they're both on the same 

 playing field now. 



In the Fish and Wildlife Parks Division, we had 

 what appeared to be a controversial bill. House 

 Bill 754, which was a stream restoration bill. 

 This levies $.50 on all fishing licenses and $1 on 

 all non-fishing licenses to be used by the Fish 

 and Game Department for stream restoration. 

 The bill was strictly to take this money for 

 stream restoration, but I think it will help agri- 

 culture in the long run. 



Coming off the drought we had a lot of water 

 legislation. We are going to require that in 

 almost all the landfill dumps in the state that 

 wells be drilled so that we can detect any 

 p>ollution or seepage into the groundwater. We 

 haven't found the solution to stop the leakage, 

 but at least we're going to be aware if there are 

 some pollutants in the groundwater. We've also 

 included in that same bill, a moratorium on any 

 outside waste coming into the state. 



Also, Senate Joint Resolution 19 directs the 

 Environmental Quality Council to study and 

 work with the EPA in trying to get some funds 

 to help us with the stringent regulations that 

 the federal govemment has put on solid waste 

 landfill disposal sites. It's going to be very 

 difficult for Montanans to stay within costs and 

 try to meet these federal regulations. This last 

 session we passed legislation that's going to 

 register underground storage tanks since there 

 are, no doubt, some that leak. Pollutants are 

 getting into municipal water systems. We've 

 got documentation of that in 50 different com- 

 munities in the state. To correct it we have 

 passed a law that requires contractors to learn 

 how the EPA wants these tanks installed and 

 repaired. Along with that bill, we've also 

 passed a bill for $.01 gas tax to be put on all the 

 people in the state for the cleanup of waste that 

 has leaked out of underground storage tanks or 

 aboveground storage. 



Montana Chapter, Soli and Water Conservation Society 



August 28, 1888 



