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Last year a group of senior water right holders asked the state of Montana to require permitting of small residential wells. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation released its ruling today denying that request.

Petitioners included senior water right holders, Missoula County, Mountain Water Company, Trout Unlimited, and the Clark Fork Coalition. They wanted to see more regulations placed on small wells in order to reduce the strain on water supplies.

Trout Unlimited released a press release saying, "in recent years, developers have used the permit-exempt well loophole to supply water for new subdivisions, in some cases drilling dozens or hundreds of exempt wells rather than applying for a new water use permit through the DNRC."

Some groups including the Montana Building Industry Association and the Montana Association of Realtors opposed the petition.

Attorney for the two organizations, Abigail St. Lawrence, says the current definition of "combined appropriation" is not in conflict with the Water Use Act. She says this bolstered their comments before DNRC.

"I was certainly hoping that DNRC would rule appropriately, and I believe they have. It was a bit of a pleasant surprise. I don't really ever count my chickens before they hatch with DNRC," St. Lawrence adds.

DNRC issued a statement saying, "The ruling protects senior water right holders while also recognizing that we face increasing demands for water in Montana."

DNRC reports it will tackle this issue again within eight months and possibly draft changes to the rules at that time.

For cattle rancher and petitioner, Polly Rex, she says DNRC is just dragging its feet.

"I think it really stops short of what we asked for, at the same time acknowledging that there are increasing demands on water resources in Montana and what we're asking for warrants a repeal of the exempt well rule. But they didn't go so far as to throw the rule out and default back to an older rule which was one we thought was better," Rex adds.

Rex believes DNRC expects the legislature to fix the issue.