Sand and gravel company TMC Inc. is moving forward with its application for a gravel pit, while nearby residents are lodging comments and raising concerns over the potential impacts on the local environment, traffic, water wells, air, their health and even the aesthetics of the area.
But at the crux of the issue is a recent bill that neutered the impact of those public comments, codified a county’s inability to challenge gravel pits using emergency zoning, and – according to the legislator who wrote it – is being misinterpreted by Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality.
Read the full story in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.