A coalition of Montana organizations representing municipalities, farmers and ranchers, landowners and conservation groups filed a challenge against the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation over its “exempt well loophole.”
The groups said the loophole allows unregulated groundwater development outside the state’s permitting system. The lawsuit seeks to protect senior water rights holders and “restore fairness and accountability,” the groups said. “The exempt well loophole has allowed developers to drill thousands of new groundwater wells without permits, even in basins that are legally closed to new appropriations,” they wrote. “The unchecked proliferation of these wells has reduced streamflows, impaired senior water rights, and undermined the state’s constitutional obligation to manage and protect Montana’s waters for the benefit of its people.”
