By Hannah Northey, E&E News PM
The lawsuit targets a decision by the Montana Board of Environmental Review to overturn standards about the amount of selenium allowed in the Lake Koocanusa watershed.
E&E NEWS PM | Environmental groups are suing a state board for moving to scrap water quality standards meant to protect a lake that straddles the Canadian boundary from nearby coal mine pollution.
Groups including the Montana Environmental Information Center, Clark Fork Coalition, Idaho Conservation League and Idaho Rivers United filed a lawsuit in district court in Montana on Thursday against the Montana Board of Environmental Review.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has already filed a separate lawsuit against the environmental review board, an agency that was created by the state’s Legislature in 1995 to monitor environmental standards.
At issue is Lake Koocanusa, which straddles the Montana-Canada border and is part of Kootenai River watershed that stretches from British Columbia’s Elk River Valley through Montana and Idaho and into the Columbia River.
