Montana House Natural Resources advances several bills to the floor, tables others after debate over DEQ role and land leases

House Natural Resources Committee Chair Gist on Thursday presided over executive action on more than a dozen bills, sending several to the House floor and tabling others after debate over environmental review duties, state land leases to nonprofit groups and missing fiscal details.

The committee moved bills including House Bill 587 (mine reclamation), House Bill 684 (removing a 60-day DEQ review deadline for impaired waters petitions), House Bill 699 (independent review panel membership), and several others to the House floor. Lawmakers tabled measures including House Bill 630 and House Bill 647 after members raised concerns ranging from due-process and access to state trust lands to the need for fiscal notes.

The discussion centered on four recurring themes: the Department of Environmental Quality’s role in environmental review under the Montana Environmental Policy Act; restrictions on leasing certain classified state lands to nonprofit organizations; how to handle transfers of mine permits and use of eminent domain; and how to structure funding or statutory appropriations for brownfield/petroleum cleanup programs.

Jason, a committee staff member, summarized multiple bills at the hearing. On House Bill 587, he said the bill "revises mine reclamation laws" and adjusts how the Department of Environmental Quality determines hydrologic consequences and defines "material damage" outside permitted mining areas. On House Bill 685 he described language that "would authorize degradation of high quality waters" by changing terminology to a "feasibility allowance." On House Bill 717 he said the Department of Environmental Quality could use…