High court affirms lower ruling on water-bottler dispute
The Montana Artesian Water Co. bottling facility is seen in Creston in this 2017 file photo. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)
A bottler of Flathead Valley artesian water will at least get to keep its grandfathered-in status within an expanded agricultural district near Creston after losing a host of recent cross-appeals in court.
In an opinion filed Tuesday, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed previous decisions in Flathead County District Court allowing Montana Artesian Water Company to continue as a legal, nonconforming bottling facility within the Egan Slough Zoning District.
An appeal centered on booting the facility had been filed by Egan Slough Community, Yes! For Flathead Farms and Water, and local resident Amy Waller.
For its part, Montana Artesian levied nearly a dozen cross-appeals largely centered on the legality of a voter-approved initiative to expand the zoning district, but also on whether the lower court erred regarding evidence discovery and claimed legal expenses.
The state Supreme Court ultimately sided with the district court “on all issues raised,” according to the 46-page opinion by Justice Ingrid Gustafson.
Southwest of Creston, the Egan Slough Zoning District formed in 2002 but was expanded by some 530 acres via initiative petition in 2018 to then also include the bottling facility. Some 70% of voters approved the ballot measure.
Property owners Lew and Larel Weaver formed Montana Artesian in 2014 and achieved their final permit for operations in July 2018, less than two weeks after the zoning district became effective.
Starting with Flathead County, dispute on whether the facility could stay in the expanded district soon boiled into Flathead County District Court, where Judge Robert Allison ultimately handed down three successive orders.
He ordered in 2019 that the voter-approved petition remained valid and later that year, that the bottling facility also remained a legal, nonconforming use within the expanded district.
In December 2020, Allison lastly ruled that the district's regulations remained constitutionally sound and that the initiative did not rise to illegal reverse spot zoning, as charged by Montana Artesian.
Company owner Lew Weaver declined to comment Wednesday on Gustafson’s opinion, instead referring press inquiries to a hired public relations representative.
Egan Slough group organizer Waller did not respond to interview requests Wednesday.
Reporter John McLaughlin may be reached at 758-4439 or jmclaughlin@dailyinterlake.com.