Missoula 



The public meeting in Missoula was held on the evening 

 of October 19, 1988, at the Courthouse Annex. 



Unknown Citizen 



• Persons logging and mining on private land do not seem to 

 have responsibility for impacts on water downstream. The 

 legislators in Montana, Idaho, and Washington should be 

 hearing from the Clark Fork Basin Project concerning 

 the recommendations of the report and specific laws that 

 should be passed to protect water quality. Existing laws 

 are not adequate. The state should do more to protect 

 water quality. 



Response: The recommendations of this report will be 

 provided to Montana legislators and interested persons 

 in each of the three states. 



Abe Horpestad, DHES-Water Quality Bureau 



• The report states that algal growth in the Clark Fork 

 is excessive; by what standards? Some rational basis 

 or standard is needed for judging whether it is 

 excessive. Until there is some means of measuring or 

 determining "excessive" algal growth, any talk of 

 limiting nutrients is begging the question. Before alot 

 of money is spent to try to limit nutrients, we need to 

 know what we will get for those dollars. The concept of 

 excessive algae is a societal judgement. It is in the 

 eye of the beholder. What is excessive here is not 

 excessive on the other side of the divide. A consensus of 

 the people is needed to judge what is excessive. There are 

 some DO violations in the river and the algae is a bother 

 to some persons using the river. 



Response: There is a need for criteria or standards to 

 determine when algae growths affect other beneficial 

 uses. This is one purpose of the tri-state research 

 program funded under the Clean Water Act, Section 525. 

 Algae growths in the Clark Fork have caused dissolved 

 oxygen depletions during the past few years. Clearly, 

 this is an impact on beneficial uses, but we do not have a 

 correlation between algae density and oxygen depletion. 



A-6 



