When Mark Twain said, “Whiskey’s for drinking; water’s for fighting over,” he wasn’t kidding. Water woes in East Helena and beyond are causing folks to fight for their homes—the biggest investment in their lives. The Governor and State Legislature must step up and help.
People living in Prestige Fox Red Meadows, near the intersection of Canyon Ferry Road and Lake Helena Drive, left a recent standing-room-only public meeting at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation feeling betrayed and desperate. They now face a Hobson’s choice of options—either appeal to the City of East Helena to hook up to city water more than a mile away, or begin a multi-step process of water mitigation with the DNRC. Either option will cost each household thousands of dollars to save their newly built homes.
Here’s why. A 2024 court order barred the DNRC from approving the use of exempt water wells for all but the entirety of housing developments. In Montana, exempt wells are wells that don’t require a permit under the state’s water rights permitting process. They were originally intended for livestock and agricultural uses or to supply a single home with water, not an entire development.
