Decades-old rules fail to address modern day water problems
Author: Philip Fingar, Broadwater County Resident
Decades-old rules fail to address modern-day water problems Philip Fingar, Broadwater County Resident Broadwater County’s rich agricultural history, abundant wildlife, and clean water resources are what make our community special. Unfortunately, those values are being threatened by poor and unlawful decision-making by our state and local governments.
Last July, the Broadwater County planning board approved the Horse Creek Hills (HCH) subdivision, a new 435-acre development project platted for the eastern shore of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, after the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) unlawfully approved the use of exempt groundwater wells for water supplies. The HCH major subdivision proposes 39 new McMansion residences and 2 commercial lots.
Not only did the County neglect concerns from community members, local landowners, senior water rights holders, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and the Broadwater Conservation District when approving the subdivision, but even more troubling is that no effort was made by DNRC to examine the impacts of 40 new exempt wells on our local water resources and ignored impacts to senior water rights holders.
Drought conditions are already posing water supply challenges for many of us. The addition of dozens of new exempt groundwater wells will worsen water availability, undermine our senior water rights, threaten our agricultural operations, and devastate local rainbow trout spawning habitat in the nearby Confederate Creek.
DNRC’s “go-to” approach for subdivision developments is to exempt groundwater wells from review. This contentious approach has been the subject of scrutiny over the years, culminating in a 2016 Montana Supreme Court order directing the DNRC to use a 1989 rule limiting groundwater permit exceptions to a volume of ten acre-feet per year. But, developers have exploited a known and repeatedly used phased subdivision loophole that threatens water resources without DNRC even batting an eye.
It’s no coincidence that the HCH developers are using the loophole, dividing the subdivision into four, ten-acre foot phases so as to qualify for exempt groundwater wells and avoid DNRC’s permit review process, despite being a single major subdivision whose cumulative volume is four times the limit for exempt-from-review wells. The segmentation of the project into phases dismisses the impacts that 40 new wells could have on senior water rights and stream flows in nearby waterways by avoiding regulatory scrutiny and hydrologic analyses altogether.
Unfortunately, the error made by DNRC in its interpretation of the exempt well ruling is not exclusive to HCH, it’s just the latest. The state agency responsible for water resource management is applying exemptions to thousands of groundwater wells across the state without analyzing the potential impacts on local water quantity. The 2023 Legislature could address this ongoing issue by defending senior water rights and private property rights that are being undermined by new subdivision development and exempt wells, but no action has been taken.
Montana is changing before our eyes, but our state departments have the ability to guide smart and responsible growth that protects our finite and valuable water resources. The former DNRC Director recently brought forward sound solutions that the agency could implement to protect private water rights and ensure new development doesn’t sacrifice our water resources. Hear, hear! DNRC should take corrective action immediately, close the exempt wells loophole, and reexamine the entire HCH subdivision’s water usage impacts in order to protect water rights or we expect the court will force them to do so.
Our state simply can’t keep using decades-old rules to address modern problems that undermine individual water rights and the long-term viability of our water resources. State leaders must stop picking winners and losers, and focus on protecting what makes Montana, Montana - clean water resources and healthy fisheries. The Governor, DNRC, and the Montana Legislature should correct this wrong.
Philip Fingar, Broadwater County resident
