Water bills stay afloat in Helena
Proposals would allow state to lease water from Hungry Horse Reservoir
Two bills that could help reduce the impact of a recent water-rights ruling still are alive in the Montana Legislature.
House Bill 443 was sponsored by Rep. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton; Senate Bill 376 was sponsored by Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Bigfork.
Together, the bills would allow the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to lease as many as 1 million acre-feet of water from federal reservoirs in the state, including Hungry Horse and Koocanusa. The water then would be reserved for use in the river basin where the reservoir is located.
One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or roughly the amount of water used by a family of four in a year.
State law currently limits the DNRC to leasing 50,000 acre-feet. Up to this point, that's been plenty - particularly in the Flathead, where nobody pays for water because so much is available.
That no longer may be the case, however, after a recent ruling that could restrict new surface-water appropriations, as well as some groundwater appropriations, throughout the Flathead and Clark Fork River basins.
The case involved a Thompson Falls lumber company that wanted to use a limited amount of water from the Clark Fork River for a small power generation plant.
A DNRC hearing examiner denied the company's request, saying the firm failed to prove that the diversion wouldn't adversely affect Avista Corp., a senior water-right holder downstream from Thompson Falls.
The net effect of the ruling is that municipalities, developers, water districts and other water users applying for new surface-water appropriations upstream from the Noxon Rapids Dam (which Avista owns) will now have to meet that same burden of proof. They'll have to prove that the requested diversion won't diminish river flows through the Noxon dam.
Kurt Hafferman, regional manager of the DNRC's Water Resources office in Kalispell, recently told the Flathead County commissioners that some prospective water users won't be able to meet that standard of review.
"It's highly likely that won't be possible," Hafferman said. "Right now, we're proposing to deny the surface-right applications we have."
If new water users are unable to demonstrate zero impact, they might have to buy an existing water right before they can proceed with their project - thereby creating a market for a commodity that was previously available for free.
The Taylor and Jackson bills could help alleviate this situation - or at least keep the cost of water more affordable - by allowing the state essentially to lease storage capacity from Hungry Horse Reservoir. That water could then be sold to developers and other water users in the Flathead basin.
The bills wouldn't simply benefit the Flathead. Essentially, they would allow the state to appropriate water that might otherwise be claimed by downstream, out-of-state water users.
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a public hearing Thursday on HB 443. The House approved the bill two weeks ago, by a vote of 95-4.
Jackson's bill sailed through the Senate on a 49-0 vote in February. It went to the House Natural Resources Committee for a hearing Monday; no further action has been taken since then.
Information about the status and content of these bills, as well as hearing schedules and the outcome of any votes, can be found on the Montana Legislature's Web site: http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp