How Important Is it To You That Water Comes Out of Your Faucet?

Helena, Mont. – Do you use water? If so, the current adjudication of Montana 's water rights may have an impact on you and how you get and use the water that comes from your faucets.

If you use water from a well, creek, river, reservoir, or any other type of water source, House Bill 22 will impact you. House Bill 22 is a recent piece of Montana legislation designed to help speed up  adjudication of the remaining 57,000 unexamined water rights in the state. Why is that important? Montana 's water is particularly valuable because we are a headwater state; we provide a great deal of water to our neighboring states. If we don't know and understand the amount of water we use regularly, we may be not be keeping enough water for our own use, especially in drought years, and that impacts everyone.

Montana 's constitution requires that a central system be created to record its citizen's use of the water. In 1973 that system was put in place and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) houses and maintains those records. There are over 300,000 water rights currently recorded in the DNRC centralized system. Each one of those rights lists an owner or many owners and their addresses. Maintaining current owner and address information is important because the water right records are being accessed regularly to notify owners of new water right applications within the area and to contact owners about questions on their water rights that are being prepared for review and issuance of a decree by the Montana Water Court . Additionally, because of recent legislation, the records are being used to send adjudication bills. House Bill 22 ensures that that database is current and accurate, so DNRC knows what water is being put to beneficial use.

All the legislation and history regarding water rights is vital to understanding the importance and impact House Bill 22 has on the citizens of Montana . However, the important question is whether your water rights are recorded in DNRC's centralized records. For example, many people assume the well drillers file the water right document on a new well, but typically that's not part of what they are paid to do. If your water use is not on file, you may not have the legal recourse to protect your water use, regardless of how long you've used that water.

If your water rights are recorded, are the rights in the correct name? Is your address accurate? If you have Internet access you can go to http://nris.mt.gov/dnrc/waterrights/ and check the DNRC centralized records. The easiest and fastest way is to enter your name, source, or legal land description.

If you need to update your address, you can do that easily on the Internet as well, at: http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/house_bill22/forms/waterrightaddresschangeform.asp.

Additionally, if the water rights are not in the correct owner's name, you need to file an Ownership Update form. That form and the instructions for filing the form can be obtained on the Internet at http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/wrd/water_rts/wr_general_info/wrforms/608.pdf.

Or, if you bought or sold land that has recorded water rights, you should check to make sure the water rights are now listed in the buyer's name. Often times, buyers and sellers believe that the realtor, lending agency, or title company files the appropriate form to update the water right records; however, that may not be a service they provide. It's easy to check and make sure that the water rights are in the correct owner name through the Montana DNRC website.

If you don't have Internet access most local libraries provide computers for Internet use, or you can contact a Water Resources Regional Office. There are offices located in Billings , Bozeman , Missoula , Helena , Kalispell, Lewistown, Glasgow and Havre. The offices are experiencing a high volume of phone calls, so please keep calling or leave a message.