Montana Farmers and Ranchers Concerned About DNRC Seizing Private Water Rights

by Colter Brown

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is asking the Montana Board of Land Commissioners to remove the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s decision-making authority over private water rights at the Board’s meeting next month.

At a Land Board meeting last week, Attorney General Knudsen and the other commissioners heard from farmers and ranchers who are concerned by the DNRC’s decision to take water rights from landowners who utilize their private water on public land they are leasing from the state to irrigate state land or provide water for their cattle. Attorney General Knudsen’s proposal before the commissioners would require the DNRC to get approval from the Land Board before making any decisions regarding the water rights of private landowners.

“After extensive public comment during Monday’s meeting it’s clear the Land Board needs to exercise greater oversight regarding the DNRC’s actions regarding private property rights,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “I will continue to stand up for Montana’s farmers and ranchers in defending their livelihoods.”

The current DNRC policy is impacting a large number of farmers and ranchers across the state. In one case before the Montana Supreme Court, Schutter v. the Montana Board of Land Commissioners, potato farmers from Gallatin County utilized their private water to irrigate their crops on state-leased land. In 2019, the state attempted to add the State of Montana as a co-owner to the landowner’s private well. DNRC’s position is that since the Schutters were using private water on state-leased land, the state could claim the private-water rights. Attorney General Knudsen filed an amicus brief last year in support of the farmers.

Attorney General Knudsen proposed the following language to be considered at the next Land Board meeting: “I move to immediately revoke the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s delegated authority to make legal decisions or legal claims on behalf of the Montana Board of Land Commissioners regarding any and all water right ownership issues arising on Montana state-owned lands; and to require specific Montana Board of Land Commissioner approval for each and every legal decision or legal claim involving water right ownership on Montana state-owned lands.”

During the 2019 legislative session, HB 286, authored by Representative and rancher Alan Redfield, revised water rights in connection to state land leases stating that “the state may not obtain an ownership interest in a water right or the groundwater development works of a water right that is diverted from a well or developed spring located on private land exclusively based on trustee obligations for state trust land.”

Land Board Commissioner and State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen commented, “I will always protect our Montana farmers and ranchers from bureaucratic overreach. The lack of transparency from DNRC on legislative action is clear. Water is the lifeblood of agriculture. I urge my fellow Land Board commissioners to recognize and reverse the antiquated delegation of authority that harms private property rights.”

“As a property owner and someone who utilizes state trust lands, I worry that my water rights could be seized next,” said Carl DeVries, member of the board of directors of the Rock Creek Water Users Association and board member of the Senior Ag Water Rights Alliance. “The state Land Board has the authority to end these overreaching DNRC actions. The elected members of the board — the governor, the auditor, the attorney general, the secretary of the state, and the superintendent of public instruction — have the authority to reverse the DNRC’s course.”

DNRC asserts that private water rights used during state trust land leases for livestock grazing and growing crops become state property when the agricultural lease is over. This issue began in 1996 when the Land Board authorized DNRC to manage these decisions.

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MT DOJ/MT OPI

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Matthew B

Our government agencies keep trying to step way past their authority. It seems to me that the DNRC needs to learn they don’t have control of private water rights or the right to steal the rights of the legal owners of the water.. We need get back to a small government that worked for the people not a big government agencies that want total power over the people.

Jim

Absolutely 💯

Stacey K

Thinking that they can gain control over the water rights in this way is like saying that the cattle on these leases are theirs as well. Complete idiocy.

Ajax

Wait, so…I borrow some land, on a “bring your own supplies” basis, and because I brought my own supplies, they own the supply? Does that mean I can get them to pay half my property tax? Or do they only own the half that’s convenient for them?

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