Holders will be notified

The water-rights adjudication process has started in the Flathead basin, with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation planning to examine 5,200 claims during the next 18 months.

The Flathead is among the last basins in the state to go through adjudication, a process that could take as long as 10 years to complete, according to Jim Gilman, the state's water adjudication bureau chief.

And that is under a ramped-up schedule mandated by the state Legislature, with additional funding to expand the work force charged with examining water-rights claims.

"In 2005, the department went from nine employees examining claims statewide to 40," Gilman said.

As claims are examined, notices will be sent to water-rights holders.

"There are 5,200 claims in the Flathead Basin, and we have nine employees who are going to start examining those claims," Gilman said. "Notices will not come all at once. They are going to be trickling out from our office over the next 18 months."

The notices will provide instructions for claimants to provide information about how water use and land ownership may have changed over time. The adjudication process mainly involves sorting out water rights that were issued prior to 1973, with claims filed on those rights before a 1982 deadline.

Matching old water rights with modern ownerships and water uses will be a challenge for the DNRC and the state water court, Gilman said.

"Many of the claimants aren't even around," he said. "In areas like Kalispell, where there has been rapid development, we know we're going to have to maybe send 15 letters out for one claim."

Some recipients may not even know they have water rights.

"We're going to have trouble with ownership," Gilman said. "Water rights may have been split a dozen different ways."

Water rights may have been abandoned or transferred, and water use may have changed in any number of ways, he added.

"The DNRC is on a fact-finding mission to gather as much information on a claim as we can," Gilman said. "We'll be attempting to get ownerships corrected on those claims."

When the state billed water-rights claimants with a fee to pay for adjudication two years ago, it became clear just how outdated water rights are with modern ownerships and uses.

"In the water-rights world, the owner of the water right was required to file a transfer whenever they sold their property, a separate action from filing a deed," Gilman said. "In many cases it didn't happen. We have many cases of very outdated ownership records."

He urges anyone receiving an adjudication notice to respond and assist claim examiners in any way they can.

When the notification and examination process is finished, the DNRC will prepare a report of its findings to the state Water Court, which will then issue a decree for the basin applying to all water rights issued before and after 1973. That will trigger a 180-day period for claimants to file any objections with the court.

And, invariably, there will be disputes. Once the objection period passes, the court will start setting up cases to resolve any disputes.

The process - from examinations through the resolution of disputes - could take as long as a decade, Gilman guesses.

Water rights adjudication in the western Bitterroot Valley involved 8,000 claims, with a decree issued by the Water Court in 1998. Now, ten years later, the court is nearly finished deciding cases for that area.

"It may have some similarities with the Flathead in terms of changes in ownership and land-use patterns," Gilman said.

Although it is a complex, time-consuming process, the state considers adjudication to be a priority largely to protect water use in Montana from competing with downstream use in neighboring states and Canada.

The 2005 Legislature directed the DNRC to process 57,000 claims statewide, and set a timeline for doing the job. For example, Gilman said, 8,000 claims had to be examined by December 2006; 19,000 claims had to be finished by December 2008; and 31,000 claims had to be examined by the end of 2010.

The Legislature also set a 2020 target for the Water Court to issue decrees for 30 basins. The 2007 Legislature set aside $25 million to pay for additional staffing to get the job done.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com