Bitterrooters for Planning will host “Our Water, Our Towns, Our Business,” an informational public meeting on the proposal for a large-scale retail store near Hamilton on Monday, October 27 at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of Hamilton City Hall. The meeting is free and open to the public.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality is currently reviewing an application for the discharge of wastewater for an 18.76-acre site at the intersection of Blood Lane and U.S. 93, south of Hamilton. Citizens attending a public hearing on that application voiced unanimous opposition to the development, citing procedural and technical errors in DEQ’s processing of the application, and frustration over their limited opportunity to voice their concerns about the project as a whole.
Kelsey Milner, President of BfP, called it “an evening of discussion on the impacts of development on our water and on our communities.” The event is focused on citizens’ desires for having a greater say in how our communities grow, and how to control the impacts of that growth. The program will feature speakers on the issues of impacts to the quality of surface and ground water; the economic and social impacts of large-scale retail; current efforts to deal with the proposed development, and possible strategies to give the public a voice in such issues.
Along with Bitterrooters for Planning, the meeting is co-sponsored by the Bitterroot River Protection Association and the Hamilton Downtown Association.
“Our quality of life is threatened by these types of development,” said Milner, whose goal for the meeting is to help the public understand their options, and to initiate action at the county and state levels to improve both the planning and the permitting process.
The DEQ will respond to public comments from the September hearing, and to written comments already submitted, by November 14, according to Tommy Griffeth, DEQ Environmental Science Specialist.
For more information on the meeting, call 360-9124.