By Katherine Berry and Milosz Shipman EBS COLUMNISTS
Water issues are technical, abstract, and very personal. They’re about the water we drink, the rivers we fish, the snow we ski and the future we’re building.
The 2025 Montana Legislative Session wrapped up on May 27, and for 90 days, senators, representatives, lobbyists, technical experts and concerned citizens engaged with proposed changes to our state’s status quo. During the session, the Gallatin Watershed Council and Gallatin River Task Force tracked bills affecting water quality and quantity in our region. Here, we’ll share some of those bills and what their failure or passage means for our visions of clean and abundant water, and healthy rivers in Gallatin County and beyond.
Senate Bill 358: Failed
One product of 18 months of collaboration in a stakeholder working group convened by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Senate Bill 358 sought to apply a science-based, place-specific approach to the issue of exempt wells by limiting them in four Montana aquifers where the water demand exceeds the available supply, including our own aquifer in the Gallatin Valley.
Here’s some background: There are no new surface water rights to allocate in the Gallatin Watershed—all of our water has been spoken for. If someone wants a small amount of water for their home, a new development or stockwater, then they can tap into groundwater through an exempt well so they can get water without going through the long permitting process with DNRC. In fast-growing areas like the Gallatin Valley, exempt wells are a tool for securing water outside of an area served by a public water system.
Today, an estimated 9,000 exempt wells in the Gallatin Valley supply drinking water, stock water and water for landscape irrigation. Since exempt wells do not require permits, their impact on an area’s overall water supply is not tracked or analyzed. Exempt wells are a difficult topic each legislative session as policymakers grapple with the tension between stakeholders who want the option to easily use a minimal amount of water and the need to manage a water supply that is vulnerable to a changing climate.
We can expect more bills next session aimed at regulating exempt wells in high-growth areas like the Gallatin to better manage ground and surface water availability.
House Bill 580: Passed
When drought hits—and it does more often now—many water users want to reduce their water use voluntarily. But under current law, if an irrigator or another user didn’t use their full water right to benefit instream flow, they could lose some of their water right due to “abandonment.”
House Bill 580 clarifies the definition of water right “abandonment” when water users reduce or cease water use during drought conditions for a purpose that is compliant with local, regional or state drought plans. It guarantees that water right holders would be able to conserve water and reduce their water consumption without the fear that their water rights would be labeled abandoned. Current efforts are underway in Gallatin County to create a local Drought and Deluge Adaptive Management Plan.
Another opportunity to address water availability is from a study bill, House Joint Resolution 74. Over the next two years, before the 2027 session, research will be conducted on water reuse in the state and will inform policy for the next session. In our region, water reuse is mainly used for irrigation, but reuse for snowmaking has become a popular innovation used in Big Sky and potentially will be used by Bridger Bowl in the future.
House Bill 664: Passed
Water quality was also a major focus this session, especially when it comes to regulating excess nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen—pollutants that can degrade river health and impact everything from recreation to drinking water. Two key bills passed that will reshape how nutrient pollution is handled in Montana.
House Bill 664 repeals numeric nutrient standards and reverts back to narrative nutrient standards for the regulation of discharge permits. For example, instead of regulations requiring a numeric nutrient target, like 0.3 milligrams per liter of total nitrogen, the regulations will be based on the levels of the impacts of water quality degradation, like algae or dissolved oxygen.
If approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the impact of HB 664 will change Montana’s water quality standards. In order to be protective of river health, significant financial and staffing resources will need to be dedicated to managing and evaluating the new program.
House Bill 736: Passed
House Bill 736 provides criteria for nutrient pollutant offsets for point source discharge permits, where offsets can be made within the same watershed.
This bill could potentially enable the City of Bozeman Water Reclamation Facility to invest in projects off-site that would improve water quality within the middle segment of the East Gallatin Watershed. It is unclear how pollutant offsets will work without numeric nutrient standards.
The 2025 session showed that water is a difficult subject to reconcile, especially in areas like the Gallatin Valley, where attempting to balance the rate of growth, the protection of our natural resources, and historic industries like agriculture can seem at odds. Collaborative water stewardship is instrumental as water policy continues to evolve at the state and local levels.
The Gallatin River Task Force and the Gallatin Watershed Council will continue to track the implementation of these new policies that will impact water quality, water supply, and watershed planning.
Katherine Berry is the Water Policy Manager for the Gallatin Watershed Council, and Milosz Shipman is the Big Sky Sustainability Intern at the Gallatin River Task Force.
