Preventing pharmaceutical pollution
Cottonwood is asking the Montana Supreme Court to invalidate a permit the Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued to the Yellowstone Club to make snow using treated sewage because the agency failed to analyze or disclose the environmental impacts of pharmaceutical pollution.
The agency failed to disclose its own report that states pharmaceutical pollution causes male fish to change sexes. The U.S. EPA has said pharmaceuticals may be having human health effects. The snow will melt and carry pharmaceutical pollution into the Gallatin River and its tributaries. The Montana DEQ never analyzed the potential impacts.
Cottonwood is challenging the Yellowstone Club’s permit to make snow in this area using treated sewage.
Some well-funded conservation organizations support the Yellowstone Club’s efforts to make pharmaceutical snow pollution.