Ranchers aim to protect water

Polly Rex holds water rights dating back more than a century. But the Absarokee-area rancher wonders what they’ll be worth if the state doesn’t change its policy regarding new wells. “My water rights are probably the most important component on my place,” she said. “I’ve been told since I was a little kid that they’re like gold. Now I’m finding they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.” Her neighbor Betty Lannen agrees. The octogenarian remembers her grandfather taking pride in his senior water rights. “That’s what they talked about,” she recalls. Now, they say, Montana’s time-honored doctrine of “first in time, first in right” is threatened by a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation rule that applies to “exempt wells.” The rule, as it currently stands, allows for the drilling of any number of new exempt wells — without regard for their impact on existing water rights...read more