Water Wins at the 2025 Legislature

Under normal circumstances, a person can survive without air for about 4-6 minutes. That’s roughly twice as long as a wild trout can survive without water. And the water that trout need to survive and thrive must be cold and clean. That’s why MTU’s top priority at the Montana Legislature is good water policy, just as our on-the-ground projects across the state focus on improving streamflows and building high-quality habitat. Our staff show up for trout in Helena, not only during the legislative session, but also throughout the off-season to build proactive solutions addressing the threats to our fisheries and our waterways.

Legislation dealing with water rights and water quantity in Montana attracts ample attention, as it should. The 2025 legislative session in Helena has been no exception. Fortunately for wild trout there are several promising bills moving through the legislature that were developed collaboratively and move the needle on long-standing challenges for our fish. Within the growing chorus of voices and views on water policy in Montana, it is important we accurately describe what these proposed laws would accomplish.

Two of these pieces of legislation will help address the troubling patterns in streamflows and water temperatures over the past few decades that anglers and river users statewide can no longer ignore. Drought and diminishing instream flow are the biggest threats facing trout in many of Montana’s coldwater fisheries. House Bill 256 would create a trust account to improve water storage, so that we can capture more water in the spring and discharge cold water in late summer when fish need it. In places where water storage facilities exist, such as the Painted Rocks Reservoir in the Bitterroot watershed, we have successfully negotiated using some of the stored water to improve flows during late summer and early fall. These late-season pulses of clean, cold water protect trout populations during critical conditions. Now awaiting executive action in House Appropriations, HB256 – “Creation of Montana water trust and special revenue accounts” – is a crucial step forward in addressing increasing water scarcity in Montana and will soon move to the Senate if unamended.

If passed, this bill will create a trust account for water storage using general fund dollars, with the interest from this trust dedicated to two distinct purposes. First, 90 percent of the interest will be directed to state-owned water storage facilities, providing vital maintenance or improvements for projects like Painted Rocks. Second, the remaining ten percent of the trust’s interest will support the Department of Natural Resource and Conservation’s (DNRC) well-established Reclamation Development Grant Program (RDG) to fund natural water storage projects like beaver dam analogs, wetland development, and floodplain restoration. Trout Unlimited and local watershed groups often partner with local governments on RDG program grants to improve stream habitat and flows. The RDG program specifically prohibits these funds from going to private entities. In short, HB256 will be a boost to public infrastructure and nature-based solutions to provide benefits for fish populations, anglers and communities statewide.

MTU also strongly supports SB358  – “Revise exempt water rights law” – to tighten regulations around a loophole in the Montana Water Use Act that has allowed developers to use increasing amounts of ‘free’ water without a water right, to the detriment of the public, senior water users, and aquatic ecosystems. Addressing the exempt wells loophole has been a top priority of MTU and water policy experts for over a decade. We joined with DNRC, the Montana Association of Conservation Districts, the League of Cities and Towns and various agricultural groups in testifying before for the Senate Natural Resources Committee on the science and benefits of better regulating exemptions to Montana’s water rights laws. Anglers and ranchers alike know that there simply is not enough water to go around already, and SB358 aims to reduce water use that falls outside of and threatens established water rights, including FWP’s instream flow rights. The bill prohibits new exempt wells in five of Montana’s fastest growing and most threatened watersheds – the Gallatin, Helena, Missoula, Flathead, and Bitterroot valleys. Hydrologic studies show that continuing to allow more and more exempt wells in these areas will severely drain groundwater supplies that are directly connected to surface water. If nothing is done to plug this loophole, communities, rivers and trout in these watersheds will suffer.

SB358 also requires further study of other watersheds to determine if the use of exempt wells should be curtailed, while allowing exempt wells to continue being used in places where the science shows they are not impacting streamflows or senior water right holders. Most of the opponents to his bill are a starkly divided mix of people who think it is either too strict or too lenient. That contrast is very good evidence of a hard-fought compromise that improves upon the status quo and has the hallmark of being durable.

As the cliché goes, ‘fish need water.’ Trout, in particular, need cold, clean water to survive and thrive in Montana’s changing rivers. We will continue to fight for those needs every day during the 2025 legislative session and throughout the year.


MT Supreme Court Rules Against the Smith

Water-use permit for the Black Butte Copper Mine upheld by  the Montana Supreme Court 

Court rules in favor of DNRC and a company that seeks to mine near the headwaters of the Smith River. 

In a blow to the Smith River and future generations, the Montana Supreme Court today upheld the water-use permit granted by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to Sandfire Resources, which plans to pump and impound large volumes of groundwater at its proposed Black Butte Copper Mine, in Meagher County. Our coalition of conservation groups had argued that the permit did not address—or mitigate—up to 457 acre-feet of the groundwater that would have to be removed from the mine each year in order to facilitate mining operations. That’s millions of gallons of water per year that the company can pump, treat, store and control for much of the year without a permit or having to mitigate for the surface water losses it causes. While we work for and worry about low flows across the state, the mining industry gets a free pass on the majority of its water.  

The Montana Supreme Court heard argument in the case on March 29. The Court ruled that the mining company is not obligated to apply for a permit for the full amount of groundwater that it will have to pump at its mining operations adjacent to Sheep Creek, a major tributary of the Smith River. 

Given the value of water to all people and uses, including fish, wildlife, family homes and agriculture, this ruling is incredibly disappointing. Allowing mining companies a handout on massive water use threatens the lives and livelihoods of all downstream water users, not to mention the health of the treasured Smith River. 

This decision upholds the anti-conservation precedent of allowing mining companies to dewater groundwater, rivers and streams without fully mitigating the impacts. To undo this precedent, our coalition of conservation groups challenged DNRC’s issuance of the water-use permit in 2020, noting that Sandfire will have to pump up to 807 acre-feet of groundwater from its mine each year, which amounts to nearly 250 million gallons. We argued that the company should be required to seek a permit for the entire quantity. We appealed the permit decision both to the DNRC, and to a district court, before appealing to the Montana Supreme Court.  

The Supreme Court’s ruling will allow Sandfire to move forward with its mining operation—and the extensive groundwater pumping it requires—without ensuring that existing water users and the region’s waters will not be adversely affected. There is no court of higher appeal. 

We firmly believe this was a fight worth taking through this final appeal process and are thankful for the support of coalition members, Trout Unlimited Earthworks, Montana Environmental Information Center, American Rivers, and our legal representation by Earthjustice. Moreso, we are thankful for the tireless energy and help we have received throughout this long process by our committed grassroots supporters and champions, like you

Our love of the Smith River is undiminished, as is our resolve to offer it the best protection we can. Rather than hang our heads, we will continue to pursue much-needed restoration work in the Smith watershed, monitor any activity undertaken by the mine, and fight to ensure that the Smith’s water quality and quantity are protected to the fullest extent of the law. 

If you have any questions or thoughts to share on this ruling or our Smith River efforts, please contact me. 

Sincerely, 

David Brooks 

BOR Grant increases capacity in Jefferson

Watershed planning in the Jefferson River basin will have increased capacity thanks to the continued partnership between the Jefferson River Watershed Council (JRWC) and Montana Trout Unlimited (MTU). The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) announced on July 2, 2024, that the partners received a $300,000 funding commitment over 3 years through the USBR’s Cooperative Watershed Management Program.

Funding will be used to:

1.  Support MTU staff and the JRWC in completing a Watershed Restoration Plan (WRP) for the upper Jefferson River and key tributaries, highlighting stakeholder involvement, and project prioritization.

2.  Contract technical assistance in identifying and developing low-tech, process-based restoration projects in discrete geographies that builds rangeland resiliency, increase groundwater storage, and buoy base-flow in key tributaries to the upper Jefferson River.

3.  Utilize drone technology to complete a riparian habitat assessment. This data will inform project prioritization for the WRP with an emphasis on developing at least one water temperature improvement project.

“This funding will usher in a new era of watershed planning in the Jefferson basin. It provides the Jefferson River Watershed Council and Montana Trout Unlimited the necessary capacity to complete a Watershed Restoration Plan and design water quantity, quality, and temperature projects at a critical time as impacts from prolonged drought continue to challenge wild trout survival,” said Chris Edgington, MTU’s Jefferson Watershed Project Manager. “With trout numbers near, or at historic lows across much of Southwest Montana, this is where we’ve been focusing our resources, we’re pleased to have this support from the Bureau of Reclamation.”