Monique Merrill

(CN) — Montana landowners, conservation groups and municipalities have taken their grievances with the state’s water management laws to court, filing an 80-page complaint on Wednesday, accusing the state of disregarding water rights.

“Despite the recognition that basins in high-growth areas are fully appropriated, the State continues to authorize these exempt wells without public notice, mitigation requirements, or evaluation of potential effects on existing water rights or surface flows,” the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court.

Under what is called the “exempt well loophole” of the Montana Water Use Act, the plaintiffs claim the state is allowing unregulated groundwater development outside its permitting system — letting

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