Butte residents file lawsuit over do-not-consume order
Two Butte residents are suing a local mining company over contaminated water.
Officials in Butte issued a ‘do not consume’ order for some residents on August 13. They reported that an over-pressurization event at the Montana Resources mine flushed contaminants – calcium and sulfate – into the potable water system in Butte-Silver Bow.
Montana Resources disconnected from the city water source and alerted authorities. The ‘do not consume’ order was lifted five days later, although vulnerable populations were still advised to avoid drinking tap water.
Two Butte residents filed a class action lawsuit as individuals and on behalf of others who were impacted. They claim Montana Resources’ negligence led to the public safety risk. They’re seeking damages.
State House speaker says he'll delay enactment of bill defining sex
Montana’s Speaker of the House says he’s delaying enactment of a bill that defines biological sex as binary.
Republican Speaker Brandon Ler of Savage says he’s doing so to prevent an immediate legal challenge. A nearly identical policy from 2023 is currently tied up in court. To avoid the 2025 bill getting swept up in the same suit, Ler said he’s using a procedural loophole to delay the bill from becoming law.
Ler has to endorse the bill before it can head to the governor for consideration. Gov. Greg Gianforte plans to sign it. Ler says he doesn’t want to let “activist judges tear it down the moment the ink dries.”
Two district court judges have blocked the 2023 law in separate cases, but the state is appealing. Plaintiffs argue the state’s definition of sex based on reproductive organs is incomplete, and erases transgender, intersex and Two Spirit people from public life.
