Some Good News on the Smith River in MT

In 1993, taking new water from the Smith River was banned. This was
pretty clear cut. It was brought to the attention of DNRC that
additional well drilling was diminishing flows in the river and
the courts interpreted the law as to bann additional well drilling.

Needless to say , this was litigated by people who wanted more
irrigation. After many years the case was seemingly concluded and
the DNRC definitively ruled that drilling underground wells in the
SMith River basin has an adverse effect on the river flow. While this
may seem like a no brainer to some , it is a big step forward for the
DNRC.

Of course this is subject to appeal but for the time being it will
stand and the fact that they have accepted the principal of river
water and ground water somehow being linked will be hard to turn back.
This is certainly good news for the trout that suffer very low
warm flows during summer droughts.


MT

Mark Tinsky wrote...
snipped good news
Of course this is subject to appeal but for the time being it will
stand and the fact that they have accepted the principal of river
water and ground water somehow being linked will be hard to turn back.
This is certainly good news for the trout that suffer very low
warm flows during summer droughts.

Mark,

It seems like things are looking up for you this year. Between this new
ruling (if that is what happened) and the decent snowpacks, your trip
this summer should be a very memorable one and on par with those that I
have often heard/read about. The story that I read was:

http://www.montanariveraction.org/sm...andowners.html

Same thing or do you know something that I haven't come across yet?

You seem to have taken a particular interest in this piece of water and
I can't tell you how cool that is. If every fisherman "adopted" their
"local" water, we would have a very good source of water information
that could be shared with the whole "fishing public." If you haven't
heard of them before, I encourage you to become a "river watcher."
Check out:
http://www.montanariveraction.org/vo....watchers.html
--
Warren
(use troutbum_mt (at) yahoo to reply via email)
For Conclave Info:
http://www.geocities.com/troutbum_mt...nConclave.html

Thanx Warren
That s some very good advice and I will t ake it !
Look forward to meeting you tomorrow on da Mo'
MT

PS Hopefully will be able to keep the right end of the boat going
the right way down the river......