Water Policy Interim Committee

Staff and Agency Reports

Water Management and Permitting

• Overview of the evolution of water law in Montana and the West
  
• Legal opinion on the term navigable waters
  
• Coal Bed Methane Water: An overview of water right issues
  
• 2002 EQC report on CBM and water policy
  
• CBM water information, MBMG
  
• House Bill No. 575 (2009) summary
  
• Menu of options for mitigation, exempt wells, and wastewater management
• Draft letter opposing Clean Water Restoration Act
  
• Drilling Down: An overview of exempt well issues
  
• Controlled Ground Water Areas, DNRC
  
• Exempt Wells in Montana, Used and Abused, Gallatin Local Water Quality District
  
• Comparison of One Well versus Many
  
• Costs and Uses of Community Wells vs. Single Family Wells
  
• Exempt Wells: A Changing Landscape, Trout Unlimited
  
• Water and Wastewater in Subdivisions, DEQ
• Montana Regional Coal Bed Methane Ground Water Monitoring Program
  
• Powder River Basin Controlled Ground Water Area
  
• Expert Scientific Opinion on the Tier-2 Methodology, Hendrickx and Buchanan
  
• Managed Irrigation with Coal Bed Natural Gas Produced Water
  
• Evaluation of Water Quality Criteria for Rain-Irrigation Cropping Systems, Suarez, Wood and Lesch
  
• State Water Projects, DNRC
  
• Aquifer Storage Options, MBMG
  
• Evapotranspiration and Groundwater: A Brief Overview, MBMG
  
• St. Mary and Milk Rivers Water Management Initiative
  
• Milltown Dam Water Right, Gerald Mueller
  
• Status of Hungry Horse Negotiations, Clark Fork Task Force
  

Water Right Enforcement

• Water Rights in Montana (2009)
  
• The Nature of a Water Right and Implications for Enforcement
  
• Water Right Changes: Legal Background and Historic Use Analysis, DNRC
  
• Water Right Ownership: Scrubbing Geocodes, DNRC
  

Water Marketing

• Report of the Select Committee on Water Marketing (1985)
  
• The times, they are a-changin': An overview of changes in appropriation rights and water marketing
  
• Water Marketing in Montana Today: Buying Water for Fish, Clark Fork Coalition
  
• A Need for Water Marketing Policy, Lotic Water Marketing
  

Agency and Program Monitoring

• How Water Works -- Water Center, Gretchen Rupp
  
• Letter to the DNRC from the WPIC
  
• Adjudication progress report -- Water Court (8-20-2009)
  
• Adjudication progress report -- DNRC (8-28-2009)
• Adjudication progress report -- DNRC and Water Court (12-28-2009)
  
• Adjudication progress report -- DNRC and Water Court (2-15-2010)
  
• Adjudication progress report -- DNRC and Water Court (4-19-2010)
  
• Adjudication progress report -- DNRC and the Water Court (7-1- 2010)
  
• Drought Advisory Committee report, 2009, Jesse Aber
  
• Water Leasing Study, FWP
  
• Ground Water Investigation Program update, MBMG (1-13-2010)
  
• Ground Water Investigation Program update, MBMG (3-11-2010)
  
• Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation report
  
• Update on Clark Fork Task Force