• In the general area of Trout Creek, the good fishing 

 is mostly on the tributaries. The Kootenai Forest 

 Plan, which projects sensitive road building and timber 

 harvesting, significant decreases in fisheries due to 

 sedimentation, etc., is of concern. This is the wrong 

 direction for the state to be moving. The state should 

 get more involved in preventing this kind of loss. The 

 Forest Service has limited enforcement and monitoring 

 capability. 



Response: The legislature's study of forest practices 

 conducted by the Environmental Quality Council is a move 

 toward improving this situation. 



• Montana is the only state in our general region that does 

 not have legislation covering BMPs for forestry use. This 

 is a gap that Montana needs to address. 



Response: See response to previous comment. 



• The Cabinet Resource Group supports the recommendations 

 for systematic surveys of better tributary spawning 

 grounds and a bottom contour map of Noxon Rapids 

 Reservoirs. Both would be helpful. 



• How will monitoring be coordinated between the mining 

 companies and the monitoring agencies? Monitoring in 

 tributaries with proposed mining is a good idea. There 

 have been some real problems with water quality monitoring 

 at the Troy Mine, which are getting better. Baseline data 

 was done using methods that are very different from the 

 monitoring program, so pre and post mine conditions cannot 

 be compared. This is an illogical situation. 



Response: Monitoring problems that occurred at the Troy 

 Mine were corrected. This is not typical of current 

 monitoring operations. 



• The Cabinet Resource Group has asked that ASARCO's 

 baseline monitoring program be designed right off the bat 

 so that a direct comparison can be made with monitoring 

 data. The state should look at the baseline data and 

 decide what constitutes degradation of state water. 



Response: A recommendation for baseline monitoring by the 

 Water Quality Bureau in tributaries that may be affected 

 by mining is provided on page 5-19. 



A-18 



