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Montana committee hears bill to coordinate water-rights review for subdivisions
Summary
A bill to create an upfront notice-of-intent process for exempt wells and to better align DEQ, DNRC and local subdivision review drew broad support from state agencies, counties and conservation groups and modest opposition from well drillers and realtors concerned about the five-year limit on the notice.
House Bill 681 would add a coordinated, front-end step to subdivision review that gives applicants earlier certainty about exempt-well allocations and lets counties rely on a state review when considering water availability.
Supporters told the Senate Local Government Committee that the bill creates a notice-of-intent process that lets a landowner or developer know, before building, whether exempt-well use is likely to qualify under the Montana Water Use Act and how an allocation would be applied by lot.
The bill matters because, proponents said, current practice forces property owners to build and put water to beneficial use before filing a notice of completion — meaning they may invest heavily without knowing whether DNRC will later find combined appropriation problems. “Today, you divide your land, you put a home on it, you turn on your tap, you then go and file a notice of completion for the use of an exempt well,” said…
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