County attorney explains water rights notice

The Montana Water Court recently issued a decree for the Clark Fork River between the confluences of the Blackfoot and Flathead rivers which goes through most of Mineral and Sanders counties.

Many residents received this notification in the mail and there have been some questions about what it means.

Wally Congdon, deputy attorney for Mineral County, has studied water rights for over 40 years and gave a short history of what is taking place. 

“Montanans filed their water right to get an adjudication of all the water in Montana. In that process, the water court had to review those claims along with the water rights office of the DNRC," Congdon explained. "If there was a mistake on your own claim, you objected to your own claim. Some residents also objected that their neighbor was taking too much in volume or acres. On the other hand, if the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or Bonneville Power Administration felt that claims were asking for too much, they could object. So, people in the last few weeks have received a notice that the preliminary process has been accomplished and the notice indicates the changes, if any, were made to the claims.”  

If landowners do not like the corrections that were made, they have a deadline to object. 

“On the cover letter,” Congdon explained, “There is a website to go to for the DNRC Water Claim to see what your claims, and other claims are where you can object to correct yours even further if you do not like the corrections that were done. The purpose is to get the most accurate reflection of what water claims are. This includes the purpose of the uses. For example, is it industrial, is it domestic, is it irrigation, is it livestock water, is it emergency fire protection. They are looking at the volume of how much water do you use altogether. Is it 5,000 gallons a year. Is it 552-acre feet for the year, etc. And then the flow rate. Is it 5 gallons a minute, is it 500 or 1,00 gpm. Also, there is a point of diversion, POD, which is where the water comes from. Do you have ground water rights? Which would be their well so the POD is the water well itself. If you have an irrigation ditch out of a creek where the ditch leaves the stream, that is the POD or where the pump is in the river.” 

Water usage and rights have been around but lately, the subject has become front and center on the table of usage. 

“States have different policies and in Montana, the rule is ‘First in time, First in line,’” Congdon continued. “An example would be a landowner’s great-grandparents diverted water from the river in 1860. This diversion creek/canal is 2 miles to a piece of ground for irrigation, then that is the first date. First in time. If a neighbor came in 1880 and planned on diverting water from the same POD, they would need to honor the chain of command. Some states have a riparian right which is they don’t care when you got there, the person closest to the river is first. The person second closest to the river is second and so forth.”

The Water Court will be offering informal public meetings to explain the objection process on the following dates:

- Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in person at the Dennison Theater on the UM Campus. 1098 Maurice Avenue in Missoula. 

- Tuesday, Nov. 19 at noon via Zoom. To take part in the telephone conference, dial (646) 558-8656 enter the Meeting ID 894 4084 7890#, then press # to skip participant ID, then enter the meeting password 844571#.