Friends,
While we will be engaged and watching for actions from the Governor’s Office, the Montana Legislature has officially concluded. Our legislative post here will be updated as bills are vetoed, placed into law, or make light of water issues.
Most importantly, the “exempt well” bills failed to pass! For the record, those included Senate Bill 358, SB 436, and House Bill 704, all of which were rightly rejected for a host of reasons. In opposition to these bills, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper highlighted the plight of the Plymales, 
a fifth-generation ranching family whose water rights we defended, alongside a spawning creek for trout and clean water, in the Horse Creek Hills decision. These bills had momentum, but all failed to address the key issue, as directed by the courts, to fix how water is appropriated for new subdivisions, a permitting failure that drives sprawl. “Water isn’t free, though exempt well policy pretends it is” as our board member and former DNRC Director John Tubbs notes.
Upper Missouri Waterkeeper was alongside a diverse group of concerned citizens and interests who opposed these exempt well bills as they would have put legislative fiat over senior water rights, whose protection is the right thing to do as neighbors and for Montana’s clean waters. As the courts have noted several times, state agencies and the legislature need to fix the process for subdivisions to get water rights rather than allow the continued theft of senior water rights. The intent of exempt wells was for diminutive uses of water for a homestead, not to be the development of a scale that threatens aquifers and the connected surface waters with depletion and pollution.
Several bills weaken citizens’ rights to know and local governments’ authority to condition new development, de facto subdivision, and other land decisions. As a 2011 interim presentation noted, these decisions “permanently determine the long-term pattern of land development and the provision of services and infrastructure for a community.” Bills to “streamline” the tedious but necessary local government process gutted citizen and local control to protect their environment and quality of life. While bills passed under the guise of “housing affordability,” this legislation will foster development too close to waterways and specific projects by well-heeled interests at a cost to other taxpayers and those downstream. A telling tale is in Bonner County in Idaho, where similar measures of unmitigated new development rights without local process have led to an emergency declaration where to “under-regulated land divisions and often lack adequate infrastructure, presenting long-term challenges for emergency access, fire protection and storm water management,” according to a local official.
In a repeat of recent sessions, the legislature went against scientific, numeric standards to protect water from pollution from new development or other new and old threats to clean water. HB 664 again attempts to direct Montana agencies to use “narrative” standards that do not look at the cumulative effects on a waterway, nor ensure that known water quality measurements are used as required by the Montana Water Quality Act and the Federal Clean Water Act. 
The recent agency denial of impairment for the Big Hole based on such a requirement highlights the problem, as we provided years of approved data by the Big Hole River Foundation showing nutrient impairment. HB 685’s repeal of non-degradation analysis for a limit review for a feasibility allowance and HB 736’s allowance for indeterminate “offsets” for pollution without a limited timeline or local scope go against tools already available under the Clean Water Act. SB 262 eliminated subdivision review by the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). All are especially concerning for anyone involved in Montana’s tourism industry or downstream of development around Big Sky. Montana DEQ already intends to allow septic systems for commercial buildings along the already impaired Gallatin River.
There was some good news this session. Our forum was a fun night, reminding us that the legislature is a bit like high school, in a good way, as folks who don’t always agree can still have fun. House Joint Resolution 44 showed bipartisan support for researching and addressing forever
chemicals in our food, water, and environment. HJ 74 showed support for the reuse of water, which may be the key to high-growth areas to recharge aquifers, make snow, or redirect nutrients with gray water. HB 477 passed both chambers to phase out Styrofoam in food packaging, a strongly bipartisan effort to protect health, reduce litter, and support Montana manufacturing. Many bad bills did not survive, such as HB 889, which would have limited the protection of open and working lands in a growth policy that failed to pass third reading in the House. HB 658, which would have limited action by health boards to protect water, as the Gallatin City-County Board of Health’s action to require a higher level of nutrient treatment by new septic systems near the county’s 29 impaired streams, also did not advance to law.
On a personal note, it has been great to meet many of you since I started at Upper Missouri Waterkeeper in late January. I look forward to working with you as we fight for our right to clean, fishable, and drinkable water.
Happy belated Sine Die!
For Clean Water –
Matt Elsaesser, Deputy Director
P.S. Upper Missouri Waterkeeper board member and former DNRC Director John Tubbs, Director Guy Alsentzer, Deputy Director Matt Elsaesser are all available for background, interviews, and to otherwise follow up regarding Montana’s 69th Legislature and the impacts to exempt wells, pollution, land use, and any water issues in our basin or throughout Montana.
P.P.S. Upper Missouri Waterkeeper will be part of the post-session panel by “How the Helena” next Tuesday, May 13th, at 5:45 pm at the Ten Mile Brewery in Downtown Helena alongside the Montana League of Cities and Towns and the Montana Association of Counties.
Status of Bills Tracked by UMW as of May 7, 2025:
| Bill Number | Position | Name | Bill Progress | Last Action |
| HB74 | Support | Revising private fish pond and commercial take laws | Signed/Enacted/Adopted | Chapter Number Assigned |
| HB256 | Support | Creation of Montana water trust and special revenue accounts | In Committee | (H) Missed Deadline for Appropriation Bill Transmittal |
| HB394 | Oppose | Revise local government public notice and resolution requirements | Passed | (H) Signed by Governor |
| HB427 | Oppose | Require government to provide certain building code text or citation causing delay or stop | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HB441 | Neutral | Align provisional water rights with final decrees | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HB477 | Support | Phase out polystyrene single use food containers (with exceptions) | Vetoed | (H) Vetoed by Governor |
| HB534 | Oppose | Allow county water and/or sewer districts to connect to a system beyond capacity | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HB594 | Oppose | Clarify prohibition on power of local government to require additional licensing or permitting | Crossed Over | (S) 2nd Reading Indefinitely Postponed |
| HB614 | Oppose | Allow for the termination of certain county zoning districts | Passed | (H) Signed by Governor |
| HB664 | Oppose | Repeal numeric nutrient standards | Passed | (H) Signed by Governor |
| HB681 | Oppose | Revise subdivision regulation laws involving determination of water availability | Passed | (H) Returned from Enrolling |
| HB685 | Oppose | Feasibility allowance for nondegradation policy | Passed | (H) Signed by Speaker |
| HB704 | Oppose | Generally revise ground water laws | In Committee | (H) Missed Deadline for General Bill Transmittal |
| HB714 | Oppose | Revise laws for divisions of land exempt from subdivision review | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HB736 | Oppose | Provide nutrient pollutant loading offsets | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HB889 | Oppose | Revise local growth policy and county zoning laws | In Committee | (H) Missed Deadline for Appropriation Bill Transmittal |
| HB935 | Monitor | Limits to Fox Hills-Hell Creek aquifer withdrawals | Passed | (H) Transmitted to Governor |
| HJ44 | Support | Interim study of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and water quality | Passed | (H) Signed by Speaker |
| HJ71 | Support | Study resolution of the impact of federal funding changes on DEQ | Crossed Over | (S) 2nd Reading Pass Motion Failed |
| HJ74 | Support | Study resolution analyzing water re-use in the state | Passed | (H) Signed by Speaker |
| SB55 | Neutral | Provide for legislative intent regarding streamflow information | Signed/Enacted/Adopted | Chapter Number Assigned |
| SB121 | Oppose | Revise the land use and planning act | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB168 | Oppose | Revise laws related to lakeshore protection | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB174 | Oppose | Providing that recreational vehicles and mobile homes are reviewed as buildings for rent or lease | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB175 | Oppose | Allowing for streamlined public hearing notice process when revising zoning | Signed/Enacted/Adopted | Chapter Number Assigned |
| SB214 | Monitor | Revise zoning laws to clarify decisions regarding prior nonconforming use of property | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB243 | Oppose | Amend zoning regulations to allow taller buildings | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB262 | Oppose | Exempt subdivision, water/sewer plans from environmental review | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
| SB357 | Support | Extend perfection deadline for certain Missouri River water reservations | Passed | (S) Signed by Governor |
| SB358 | Oppose | Revise exempt water right laws | In Committee | (S) Revised Fiscal Note Printed |
| SB436 | Oppose | Generally revise laws relating to exempt wells | Crossed Over | (H) Tabled in Committee (H) Natural Resources |
| SB532 | Oppose | Revise county zoning to allow accessory dwelling units | Passed | (S) Transmitted to Governor |
For more information on bills we tracked, check out our cheat sheet here.
*As of May 21, 2025, at noon, HB 681, HB 684, and HB 685 still await action from the Governor. The Governor will sign, line-item veto, or allow these bills to become law without a signature this week.