Grass Valley French Ditch Company provides senior water rights to buyers looking to mitigate the impacts of development in the Missoula area.
The Grass Valley French Ditch Company is one of Missoula’s oldest and largest irrigation companies. As Montana's first permitted water bank, the Company is legally authorized to sell or lease water to mitigate new water withdrawals in the growing Missoula Valley.
What is a water bank?
A water bank efficiently trades among water users. Across much of Montana, water is over-appropriated, meaning more water is allocated than is physically available in streams or rivers. As such, many areas are closed to new water appropriations, including the Missoula Valley. Any new water use that requires more than a small permit-exempt well is required to mitigate or offset, its impact on groundwater or nearby surface waters. This often meant having to buy and convert senior irrigation water rights to instream flow, an expensive and difficult option. Now, developers can purchase or lease mitigation water much more simply from the Grass Valley French Ditch Company.
About the company
The Grass Valley French Ditch Company lies in the heart of fast-growing Missoula County, and diverts water from the Clark Fork River. Since 1901 the Company has irrigated 5,489 acres just downstream of the City of Missoula. The main canal is 13.5 miles long, and diverts up to 105.75 cubic feet per second (68 million of gallons per day) from the river.
Shareholders first decided to explore water marketing options in March 2008 to meet the growing demand for residential and industrial water use in Montana's second-largest city. The board of directors voted to change the bylaws to recognize certain company “shares” for water mitigation. In December 2014, the Company received authorization from the Montana Department. of Natural Resources and Conservation for marketing for mitigation establishing the state’s first and only (2020) water bank.
Water Bank Prices
The Grass Valley French Ditch Company hired Highland Economics to set water bank prices. Details regarding prices are disclosed on a case by case basis, and subject to market changes.
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