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Stevensville council approves perpetual easement, water-rights transfer to resolve 2011 mitigation shortfall
Summary
The Stevensville Town Council approved a permanent easement and transfer of three mitigation water rights from the Reeves family to the town, resolving a 2011 DNRC permit condition the town had not met. The agreement includes $25,000 cash and nine waived hookup fees; vote was 4–0.
The Stevensville Town Council voted to approve a perpetual easement and the transfer of three mitigation water rights from the Reeves family, a move town counsel said is intended to cure a longstanding condition from a 2011 DNRC water-right permit.
Ross Miller, the town's water attorney, told the council the 2011 DNRC permit that authorized diversion for the Twin Creeks subdivision required mitigation by routing service (mitigation) water into a series of ponds and legally implementing an aquifer-recharge plan. ‘‘Diversion under this permit may not commence until the aquifer recharge plan is legally implemented,’’ Miller said, and he added that the mitigation system was never legally implemented after the original developer went bankrupt.
Miller said the negotiated easement would restore the town’s legal position: ‘‘We entered negotiations with the Reeves to acquire an easement to those ponds so that we would have legal access and legal occupancy to those mitigation ponds,’’ he said. The…
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