By Michael Howell
Following the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) process for issuing ground water use permits for wells, the Town of Stevensville has installed four new wells in a well field located near the Twin Creeks Subdivision on the south side of town. The wells are up and running and water is being pumped up the Middle Burnt Fork Road to the Town’s reservoir at South Burnt Fork Road. Water from the old gravity feed system that depended on water out of North Swamp Creek is being diverted back into the creek at the reservoir.
In the meantime, the Town was pursuing an application for a change in water right at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) to change the point of diversion for its water rights out of North Swamp Creek to the groundwater wells in town. Over the span of a few years, however, that process has stalled out and last month DNRC told the Town that it was terminating the change application.
Jim Nave, Deputy Regional Manager for DNRC, said that the agency has decided to terminate the application because the Town has failed to submit the information requested to make the application correct and complete. According to Nave, the important thing is that the agency was not denying the application, it was simply terminating the application process due to the Town’s failure to submit a plan to prevent adverse effects to other water right holders due to the change in the diversion point.
The agency has not made any assessment of the criteria because the application is not yet deemed correct and complete. Nave said that the data submitted by the Town so far does indicate that the change may be more problematic than simply a change in point of diversion and so far the Town has not submitted a plan that would prevent adverse effects upon other water right holders.
Nave said that he is hoping that the Town will find a solution by using its surface water rights for mitigation.
“I think they were hoping to just make a simple change of diversion points and not have to consider mitigation,” he said.
Nave said that he feels sorry for municipalities in Montana right now that are having to deal with water right issues. But his department is in a bind, he said, being constrained by laws and Supreme Court rulings that provide no easy resolution.
Nave said that despite the fact that the application was terminated, his agency was ready and willing to work with the Town “if they want to take another crack at it.” He said they were working with DEQ and that nobody needs to worry that the Town’s water will be shut off.
Stevensville Mayor Paul Ludington said that the process has been confusing and frustrating for the Town but they were going to continue to work with the various state agencies to move the process forward.
