The Interim

Water Policy Interim Committee

Water Committee to Consider Seven Bills

Committee: Water Policy Interim Committee
Author: Jason Mohr
Posted on June 4, 2018

Image of Fish lake Creek

A study of Montana’s stream gauging system may be headed to the 2019 Legislature.

The Water Policy Interim Committee will consider seven possible pieces of legislation when they meet in July, including a study of the use and administration of stream gauges. The topic highlighted the committee’s May 21-22 meeting in Bozeman. During that meeting, the committee heard from those who pay for the stream gauges—and those who depend on its data for irrigation, public safety, recreation, and other uses.

Montana’s 227 stream gauges cost about $18,000 each to maintain annually, according to John Kilpatrick, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Montana-Wyoming Water Science Center. The federal government pays approximately two-thirds of those costs; 26 other entities, including watershed groups, conservation districts, and state and local governments, pay the rest. The USGS recently has been decommissioning a few stream gauges per year due to the cost, and Montana state agencies have reduced their funding as a result of budget constraints.

WPIC will consider the stream gauge bill draft and six others at their July 16-17 meeting, including:

  • defining a “supplemental notice” from a state agency during the administrative rulemaking process;
  • a deadline to amend a water right claim during the statewide adjudication process;
  • three bills related to water right permitting and change of the water right process; and
  • amending state law to allow intra-agency sharing of certain “distribution lists,” such as a list of water right holders.

The committee will also consider two draft reports related to its interim studies of exempt groundwater wells and the process of changing a water right.

Next Meeting

The committee meets again on July 16-17, 2018, in room 152 of the Capitol in Helena.

For more information on the committee’s activities and upcoming meeting, including a full agenda, please visit the committee’s website or contact Jason Mohr, committee staff.

WPIC is led by Sen. Pat Connell (R-Hamilton), presiding officer, and Rep. Zach Brown (D-Bozeman), vice presiding officer. Other members are Sens. Jill Cohenour (D-East Helena), Jon Sesso (D-Butte), and Jeffrey Welborn (R-Dillon); and Reps. Bob Brown (R-Thompson Falls), John Fleming (D-St. Ignatius), and Carl Glimm (R-Kila).

Committee Website:  www.leg.mt.gov/water
Committee Staff:  jasonmohr@mt.gov or 406-444-1640

 

 

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