A number of public agencies including local and county governments and federal bodies are required to monitor and enforce water safety standards including regulation of businesses and organizations that use or affect the water supply in Richland County. To see how they all fit together, check out our Regulatory Flowchart. Below you will find links to the places where you can find the results of those tests and regulations online.

• Water Discharge Permits in Richland County - This site lists information about all of the water discharge permits issued in Richland County. MDU, construction and drilling projects and other entities that discharge a substantial amount of water into local rivers and aquifers are required to hold and comply with these permits.
• Enforcement and Compliance History Online - This site lists enforcement actions taken by the EPA and state agencies, if an organization in Richland County violates laws regarding water quality and discharge, the efforts made to bring them into compliance are detailed here. You will need to scroll down the "Geographic Location" section and select MT and then Richland County.
• Montana Water Court - Legal challenges regarding water rights and appropriate use are handled by the Montana Water Court. This site has information about bringing and responding to complaints and relevant state and federal laws.
• Montana Department of Environmental Quality - The Montana DEQ website has an entire section devoted to water quality including relevant laws, and is a great place to learn about all the different ways the state of Montana is protecting water quality. Annual Public Water System reports are also published here, as well as a list of state laws and regulations that deal with or impact water quality issues.
• Clean Water Act Information System - This is a portion of the Montana DEQ website that provides a searchable database of water quality data for all of Montana. It reports on TMDLs which are the Total Maximum Daily Loads of pollution (from all sources) that a water system can bear and still meet state and federal standards.
• USGS Flow Data for Montana - This site provides USGS flow data on rivers in Montana. You can click on the monitoring sites on the state map to see data for Richland County and the rest of the state.
• EPA Information about Safe Drinking Water - This site provides information about the requirements of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and how that legislation translates into safe public water sources.
• Montana Source Water Protection Program - This site is a database of all public water sources in Montana. In Richland County, this also includes restaurants and hotels which serve a certain number of people each year. Search by Richland County and you can download more detailed reports on where the water comes from, how it is monitored and protected and what population it serves.
• Pesticide Detections In Montana Ground Water - The Department of Agriculture monitors test wells throughout Montana for the presence of pesticides. Just because a pesticide has been detected does not mean concentrations are high enough to affect the safety of the water supply, but it still important to be aware of this potential threat to our ground water.