A piece published Saturday, June 7 by Hagadone News Network argues that Montanans haven’t gotten nearly angry enough about PFAS — the class of synthetic chemicals found in rivers across the state.
The opinion, headlined “We aren’t mad enough about PFAS in Montana’s rivers,” doesn’t frame the contamination as a distant or abstract problem. The headline alone is an accusation aimed squarely at the public. Not at regulators. Not at industry. At the people who live here and fish and drink the water.
PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — don’t break down in the environment or in the human body, which is why they’ve picked up the nickname “forever chemicals.” Researchers and federal agencies have spent years linking them to a range of health problems, including certain cancers and immune system disruption. Their presence in waterways has triggered cleanup fights and regulatory battles across the country; Montana hasn’t been spared.
The argument
The Hagadone piece doesn’t appear to break new data — it’s an opinion, not an investigative report. But the framing is pointed: the public’s reaction to what’s in Montana’s rivers doesn’t match the scale of the problem. That’s a claim that tends to land differently when it comes from a regional news outlet rather than a national advocacy group. Hagadone operates papers across Montana and northern Idaho, so the audience it’s speaking to is local.
What specific rivers are named, what concentrations have been measured, and whether any state or federal agency has taken recent action on Montana’s PFAS levels — those details aren’t available from the published summary. Whether the piece calls for any specific legislative or regulatory response also isn’t clear.
Hagadone News Network did not immediately respond to a request for additional information about the piece’s findings.
Hagadone News Network published the opinion piece on June 7, 2026. Read the original report.
