Water Rights
and
Water Adequacy
What they are, and how the WARD Initiative will impact them
What are water rights?
As defined by the Montana Code Annotated (85-2-101, 85-2-102), waters within the state are the property of the state for the use of its people and are subject to appropriation for beneficial uses, and water rights are a property right to use water.
The City of Bozeman currently has water rights from the Bozeman Creek watershed, Hyalite Creek, and Lyman Creek. The City currently has water rights to around 10,500 AF (acre-feet) of reliable water supply, and we are currently using 68% of that. This is all surface water.
Montana has no priority of use, meaning all water uses are considered equal.
What is water adequacy?
In order for the City of Bozeman to approve a new development, developers must demonstrate that they have enough water to support that development.
The Bozeman Municipal Code (BMC) Section 380.410.130 D currently has three methods for developers to achieve water adequacy.
Section 380.410.130 D Summarized
Transfer water rights into city ownership
Implement onsite or offsite water efficiency conservation measures that offset the predicted annual water demand of said development
Pay the City cash-in-lieu of water rights (CILWR). The price for CILWR has been set at $6000 per acre-foot of water since 2008.
Developers can use a combination of the three to fulfill the water adequacy requirement.
But Bozeman is in a closed basin so Option 1 is rarely used for there are no new water rights. Therefore, usually a combination of Options 2 and 3 are used. However, neither of those options actually introduce new water into the system, and CILWR strictly takes water from Bozeman’s limited supply.