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.
Prestige Fox Meadows residents have been violating the court order and didn’t even know it. No one told them until a few weeks ago. Now they’re left holding the bag and it’s going to cost them a bundle. Grand Vista in the North Valley, Kamp Major off Spokane Creek Road, and nine others across the state face the same dire problem.
During the 2025 Legislative Session with House Bill 358, state legislators tried to grandfather in existing homes to prevent their violation and the need for costly water mitigation. Unfortunately, the legislative sausage-making ruined the original version of the bill and it failed.
Let’s appeal to Governor Gianforte to give these homes and homeowners a grace period before having to comply. Encourage him to use available state funds to pay for water mitigation, instead of the homeowners having to fork out the funds.
The Legislative Water Policy Interim Committee handles water policy. Let’s ask the committee to sponsor committee bills during the next legislative session in 2027 to grandfather in these 12 developments across the state and even to create a special revenue account for water mitigation.
You can testify in person, over Zoom, or submit written testimony. The Water Policy Interim Committee next meets on Monday, January 12, 2026, at the State Capitol. For more information, visit this website.
Moving to another water woe. During one of the hottest stretches this past summer, I got a call from a distressed homeowner at NorthStar Development in the Valley. When she turned on the tap, nothing. No water for her thirsty kids. No water for her to shower to get to work.
Unbelievably, at a recent county planning board meeting, members voted to allow even more units to be built there, despite the lack of water. “What were they thinking?” I testified.
In addition, residents at Dakota Valley Mobile Home Park in the Northeast Valley and Golden Estates on Highway 12 can’t count on water flowing when they turn it on. And when it does flow, it’s often dirty. The new absentee owner who lives in Tennessee, Abraham Anderson, reportedly refuses to fix the two water systems.
There’s still another water woe. East Helena needs its water right from the ASARCO Superfund agreement to use for future housing—the Habitat for Humanity project and the Prickly Pear Estates development. The State, a partner with the City and EPA in the ASARCO Superfund Site cleanup, has been reluctant to approve the water right transfer to the City.
The State wants to keep the water right for future instream flows, if needed. As part of the agreement, the Montana Environmental Trust Group, the trustee of the Custodial Trust, possesses the water rights to the reclaimed land. But the State and City must agree on who gets what.
East Helena Mayor Kelly Harris wrote in a July 2024 letter to Montana Lt. Governor Kristen Juras, “To supply water to meet the needs of estimated future growth, additional municipal water supplies will be required…The City’s request for a portion of the former ASARCO water rights is warranted…A portion of the lands formerly owned by ASARCO, and held by the Trust, have been annexed by the City. As a result, the City is obligated to supply municipal water to these areas…”
Over many decades, East Helena residents built their lives and livelihoods working at the ASARCO Smelter. I encourage our Governor and Lt. Governor to release the water right. It rightfully belongs to East Helena and its residents.
I plan to keep working for water conservation and to use our valued water resources judiciously, so that everyone can share. Exempt water wells for housing should be completely prohibited. Elected officials and power brokers have given a wink and a nod to the misuse and overuse of exempt wells for too long, maxing out our closed water basin and disregarding the original intent of exempt wells, which was for agriculture.
We need to disincentivize sprawl and incentivize developers to connect to city public water systems when possible. Our weak, vague, and in some cases non-existent disclosure laws for homebuyers must be tightened up and improved, so it isn’t always, “Buyer beware.”
And we must hold absentee, out-of-state mobile home park owners accountable for failing to maintain their property water systems. As Montana moves forward, let’s work together to use our water wisely, and implement better policies to protect people from the water woes that many now face.
For a community that knows what it’s like to live in a groundwater control area with the only option being on city water in city limits and outside city limits, having water well monitors because of its Superfund and smelter history, the solution for our future should be an easy yes.
This community knows better, because they’ve been there, done that, with these same issues. The time is now to start building a better water future for East Helena.
Mary Ann Dunwell is a Montana state senator representing East Helena and Eastern Lewis & Clark County. She’s served in the Legislature for more than a decade and can be reached at (406) 461-5358 cell/text or MaryAnn.Dunwell@LegMT.Gov.