Board continues Fire Bucket Meadows subdivision hearing after contested water availability evidence; parties to draft conditions

Missoula County continued the preliminary plat hearing for the proposed Fire Bucket Meadows subdivision on May 29, 2025, after extended presentations and public comment about groundwater availability. County staff, an applicant-retained hydrogeologist, the Water Quality District and residents debated whether four additional domestic wells could be drilled on the 19.82-acre parcel without adverse impacts on neighboring wells.

The proposal, from property owners Dale Sparks and Tammy Beach and represented by PCI/BCI, would divide 19.82 acres at 11109 Fire Bucket Loop into a five-lot residential subdivision (approximately one dwelling per 3.96 acres). Planner Patrick Swart told the board this was the fourth hearing on the proposal and that the applicants had provided a hydrologic report from Water Rights Inc. after neighbors raised groundwater concerns.

Lee Yellen, a water-rights specialist retained by the applicants, summarized an analysis of well logs and older aquifer tests. Yellen said aquifer tests near the Wye system conducted in February 2007 reported very large pumping rates (1,100–1,200 gallons per minute) with minimal drawdown at adjacent monitoring wells, and more recent wells drilled in 2023 produced about 15 gpm and 7 gpm. He described bedrock aquifer characteristics—low transmissivity and variable yields—and concluded, on…