Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission. This commission 

 has the authority to negotiate the quantification of Indian 

 and non-Indian federal reserved water rights. Negotiated 

 compacts, after being ratified by the Montana Legislature and 

 tribal governing body, would be included in the appropriate 

 preliminary and final decree as part of the statewide 

 general adjudication. 



The 1973 Water Use Act gave the DNRC responsibility for 

 approving provisional water use permits and changes to water 

 rights. A provisional permit is a right to beneficially use 

 water where the right has been acquired through application 

 to and approval of the DNRC. The applicant must show that 

 water is available and no adverse effect will result to 

 senior users before a provisional permit cna be administra- 

 tively granted. Similarly, a change in place of use, purpose 

 of use, point of diversion, or place of storage can be 

 administratively authorized for perfected water rights. The 

 DNRC will authorize changes in water rights if the applicant 

 shows adverse effect will not result to other users and the 

 proposed change is still a beneficial use of water. 



The 1973 Water Use Act also required that DNRC develop a 

 centralized records system that included both existing and 

 permitted water rights. The computerized records system 

 established by the DNRC contains a variety of specific 

 information on certain types of water rights or summary 

 information on water rights by drainage basin. Information 

 on water availability for future development within specific 

 drainage basins is not easily obtainable. Many variables, 

 including water use system efficiencies, the magnitude and 

 timing of return flows, variations in the timing of withdraw- 

 als and applications, storage rights, changing hydrologic and 

 meterologic conditions, and the magnitude, location, and 

 seniority of water rights affect the supply available at any 

 given time. However, such information is essential for 

 management of water resources in the future. 



Pre-1973 Water Rights Claimed Through Statewide Adjudication 



A summary of the number of pre-1973 claims for major 

 water uses by drainage basin has been compiled in Table 3-1. 

 A number of claims were submitted after the filing date, and 

 their legal status is unknown. 



The pre-1973 water right claims submitted as part of the 

 general adjudication were computer sorted from the DNRC's 

 centralized records. Six general types of water use were 

 identified — hydropower, fish and wildlife, municipal, 

 irrigation, rural domestic, and other. The amount of water 

 claimed for each type is listed in Table 3-2. Because 



3-2 



