

measure 



SlATE 



Cc 



MAY 



1973 



0. M. Ueland, Editor, Capitol Station, Helena, Montana 



OFFICIAL NEWS BULLETIN 



MARCH-APRIL, 19 73 



YOU AND THE NEW WATER LAW 



Dept. of Natural Resources 

 and Conservation 



Extensive preparations are be- 

 ing made by the Department of 

 Natural Resources and Conservation 

 to administer the recently enacted 

 Montana Water Use Act. The Dept. 

 is also attempting to answer ques- 

 tions of water users regarding 

 steps which must be taken to com- 

 ply with the new law's provisions. 

 The following are most commonly 

 asked: 

 1. What should I be doing now? 



Nothing needs to be done right 

 now, because the law won't go into 

 effect until July 1. Immediately 

 on and after this date, there are 

 three kinds of situations which 

 may require action on your part: 



(A) If you want to begin a new 

 use of water, one not started be- 

 fore July 1, you must file an ap- 

 plication for a permit with the 

 Dept. , using a form fiirnished by 

 the Dept. and available at the 

 Dept.'s or County Clerks and Re- 

 corders' offices. The only excep- 

 tion to the application and per- 

 mit system of acquiring a new 

 water right is that, outside the 

 boundaries of an established con- 

 trolled groundwater area, a per- 

 mit will not be required before 

 a well is drilled to appropriate 

 water for domestic, agricultural , 

 (Continued - Page 2) 



A. G. SLATTERY - PREZ SEZ 



New trends in land use plan- 

 ning are becoming more apparent 

 every day in this complex and 

 changing society. CDs have his- 

 torically championed land use 

 plans for individual farms and 

 ranches. More recently they have 

 given assistance and technical 

 information to non-agricultural 

 land use planning such as cities 

 and counties, industry, urban 

 development subdivisions, mined 

 land reclamation, sediment con- 

 trol, pollution abatement, high- 

 ways, flood plains and many 

 others . 



The following situations will 

 be of growing concern to Montana 

 CDs: 



1. County Planning - The 1973 

 legislature passed legislation 

 which requires a CD supervisor 

 (Continued - Page 3) 



