DEQ

Nancy Schlepp doesn't just work for the company developing the proposed mine near White Sulphur Springs, Montana- she's also a former Meagher County Commissioner whose family has farmed and ranched the region going back to the 1800's. And, she knows that the region is desperately in need of high wage jobs to keep young families closer to home.

The bonds are intended to protect taxpayers from being stuck with a bill for future cleanup costs.

The Billings Gazette reports the Northern Cheyenne Tribe will receive up to $270,000 for a street sweeper and the city of Colstrip will receive up to $103,000 for a building to store road de-icer.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has reported that none of the 18 pharmaceutical chemicals that spilled into tributaries of the Gallatin River on March 3 pose any threat to human health.  About 35 million gallons of effluent drained from the Big Sky-area storage pond over the course of four days...