Development, drought and dewatering in the Northern Rockies are changing the streams and rivers of Montana — and not in a way that’s going to make too many fly fishermen happy: (found via Ted William’s Excellent Blog)

But now, a series of recent studies show the future of Montana’s fabled waters is in doubt. These days, drinking out of the once-pristine Gallatin is not recommended. There’s more algae on the river’s bed, and soon, thanks to increased sedimentation, those mayflies may disappear entirely. Assailed by drought, development, pollution and dewatering, the Blue Ribbon trout streams that form the great Missouri River are troubled waters, indeed.

An article in the Montana Standard suggests the biomass in many rivers and tribs in the Upper Missouri River basin is shifting from coldwater species to those that thrive in warmer waters:

At the Bozeman meeting of the American Fisheries Society last year, Dan McGuire, a researcher who has been studying the Upper Missouri basin for 30 years, broke grim news with his presentation, titled: “Long-term macroinvertebrate monitoring indicates fundamental environmental changes in the Upper Missouri River basin.”

McGuire looked at historic levels of aquatic insects, plants, sedimentation and flow rates on the Madison, Jefferson, Big Hole and Upper Missouri Rivers. After repeating a 1978 Fish, Wildlife and Parks study on the Jefferson River, McGuire wrote: “The differences in the macroinvertebrate community were dramatic.” Like the Gallatin EIS, McGuire found the traditional clean and cold water species of insects were diminishing and being replaced by non-insects such as “mollusks, worms, crustaceans.”

While McGuire says the main cause of the changes appears to be drought, he also mentions water use and management.

And Enjoy That Prozac — Compliments of Your Neighbor

Warming, over-fertilized rivers draw a knowing (if grim) nod from most of us, but later in the article we stumbled across some even less pleasing information — the damage done to groundwater supplies by the thousands of new septic tanks added to the landscape due to Montana’s development boom.

What are we talking about? Get this — the drugs that have already passed through someone’s body and septic tank (wretch):

What was perhaps less expected, but much more shocking to the general public, was the discovery of 22 PPCPs (pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disrupting compounds and pesticides). Of the 38 public and private domestic water wells tested, a shocking 80 percent contained the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and 40 percent contained the broadleaf weed-control herbicide atrazine, with lower detection rates for carbamazepine (an anticonvulsant, anti-manic agent used to treat epilepsy, neuralgia and bipolar disorders), dilantin (an anti-seizure medication) and diclofenac (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that works by reducing hormones that cause inflammation and pain in the body).

Also present were detectable amounts of DEET (insect repellant); Ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory); 17-betaestradiol (estrogen); Bisphenol A (used in plastics, but also activates estrogen receptors); Diethylstilbestrol (estrogen replacement removed from market in 1997); estriol (estrogen); fluoxetine (anti-depressant); gemfibrozil (cholesterol treatment); meprobamate (used to treat anxiety/tension); naproxen (antiinflammatory); oxybenzone (sunscreen); pentoxifylline (treatment of leg pain from poor blood flow); progesterone (female hormone replacement); triclosan (antibacterial agent in soaps and detergents); and timethoprim (used to treat urinary tract infections).

Sure, the glass half full guy realizes he’s enjoying a free dose of Prozac just by drinking from his well, but if you’re not necessarily disposed towards drinking someone else’s chemicals, you might just shudder a bit.

Concentrations of most of the drugs are low, but then, they’re talking about the groundwater that folks drink every day. Exactly what would be the effect of a lifetime of that kind of exposure?

No, we don’t know either.

See you at the water faucet, Tom Chandler.

Posted in Environment, News.