Flathead Basin Commission Monitoring

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The monitoring document is made up of three PDFs.
The first PDF is pages 1-22. (360 KB).
The second PDF is Page 23 (68 KB)
The third PDF is made up of pages 24 through 35. (125 KB)

The Flathead River Basin
Long-term Surface Water Quality and Supply Monitoring Plan

Summary

This monitoring plan is intended to provide a framework for determining long-term base-line conditions and changes in water quality (i.e, physical, chemical and biological) of the Flathead River Basin. The Flathead Basin Commission (FBC) is responsible for ensuring that data on water quality, water supply, and bio-physical condition are collected for making an evaluation of conditions and trends within the Basin. The statutory purpose and duties of the FBC for monitoring are:

"The purpose of the Flathead Basin Commission is to protect the existing high quality of the Flathead Lake aquatic environment; the waters that flow into, out of, or are tributary to the lake; and the natural resources and environment of the Flathead Basin." MCA 75-7-302

Duties of the Commission are:

(1) To monitor the existing condition of natural resources in the basin and coordinate development of an annual monitoring plan. This plan must involve a cooperative strategy among all land and water management agencies within the Flathead basin and identify proposed and needed monitoring, which emphasizes but is not limited to the aquatic resources of the Flathead basin.

(2) To encourage close cooperation and coordination between federal, state, provincial, tribal, and local resource managers for establishment of compatible resource development standards, comprehensive monitoring, and data collection and interpretation; MCA 75-7-304

(3) To encourage and work for international cooperation and coordination between the state of Montana and the Province of British Columbia concerning the undertaking of natural resource monitoring and use of consistent standards for management of resource development activities throughout the transboundary North Fork Flathead River drainage portion of the Flathead basin.