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36.12.1901    FILING A CHANGE APPLICATION

(1) An applicant who desires to change the point of diversion, place of use, purpose of use, or place of storage of a water right must file an application to change a water right (Form No. 606) and any applicable addendums.

(2) An application for a temporary change must meet the same rule requirements as those for a permanent change application.

(3) In addition to the change application rules, an applicant proposing to temporarily change to instream flow must submit the information required under 85-2-407 and 85-2-408, or 85-2-436, MCA.

(4) A change application must contain sufficient factual documentation to constitute probable believable facts sufficient to support a reasonable legal theory upon which the department should proceed with the application.

(5) The department must consider historical use in determining whether changing the water right would constitute an enlargement in historic use of the original water right.

(6) Only an owner of record, as shown in the department's water right records, can apply to change a water right, except if a change application is for a water right lease pursuant to 85-2-436, MCA, the change applicant must be the state of Montana, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

(7) Multiple water rights may be changed on one application if upon completion of a project, the diversion, place of use, purpose, and storage information will be exactly the same for each water right.

(8) The legal descriptions for the point of diversion and place of use must be identified as required in ARM 36.12.110.

(9) Flow rate (in gpm or cfs), volume (in acre-feet), or reservoir capacity (in acre-feet) will be rounded to the nearest tenth.

(10) The application must contain a narrative explaining the specific details of the requested water right change and why it is being requested.

(11) The proposed diverted flow rate and diverted volume of water must be identified for each changed right.

(12) The time needed to complete and put the changed project into operation must be identified. Information must be included in the application materials that justify the requested time. The justification must include information that would lead a person not familiar with the project to conclude the period requested is reasonable and needed to complete the change and put the changed water right to use.

(13) For a change application that is only to add stock tanks to an existing stock water system, the following rules apply:

(a) Form No. 606 must be completed and must describe the details of the proposed project. Form No. 606 and any applicable addendum(s) must be filled in with the required information;

(b) the applicant must show that each water right to be changed has been used and must explain the extent of the historic use including the flow rate and volume;

(c) the applicant must provide information to show that the historic flow rate diverted will be adequate for the new use, even though additional stock tanks may be farther away from the source of supply; and

(d) for changes from instream flow based on 85-2-222, MCA, to stock tank(s), the maximum flow rate authorized for the new use will be 35 gallons per minute.

(14) An applicant shall explain why required information is not applicable to the applicant's proposed project.

 

History: 85-2-112, 85-2-113, 85-2-302, MCA; IMP, 85-2-302, 85-2-401, 85-2-402, 85-2-407, 85-2-408, 85-2-436, MCA; NEW, 2004 MAR p. 3036, Eff. 1/1/05; AMD, 2009 MAR p. 2259, Eff. 11/26/09; AMD, 2012 MAR p. 2071, Eff. 10/12/12.

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