FAQs

Our water comes from: 

The City continues to develop new water supply as outlined by the City’s Integrated Water Resources Plan (2013 Integrated Water Resources Plan) as well as use water in the most efficient and responsible way possible through the City’s water conservation program. The City’s water conservation program has been so effective that Bozeman is 30% more water efficient than other cities throughout Montana and is even more efficient than other comparable western cities such as Boulder, Bend, and Denver that also have water conservation programs. On average, Bozeman uses 188 gallons-per-household-per-day (gphd) of water compared to 314 gphd across other arid western states and 254 gphd as the national average.  

For the past several decades, the City has required new development to provide water. A new development can do so in a number of ways:  :  

1) reduce demand with water conservation systems and techniques;  

2) pay cash-in-lieu of water rights , and the City uses the cash to develop useable     municipal water rights;  

3) bring useable water rights to the City.  

Details of the water adequacy policy are codified in Bozeman Municipal Code in Section 38.410.130. 

98-99%. Nearly all development since the 80’s has paid cash-in-lieu of water rights to the City. The City then uses that cash to develop water rights for additional water supply. This means the majority of current housing in the City has provided water through the cash-in-lieu system.  

Developing water rights is highly complex, takes at least 5-8 years to maneuver through the State’s water right change system, and requires infrastructure, such as water treatment systems, pipes, and storage tanks. It is much more efficient to do this in large projects that serve significant portions of the City instead of being constructed one development at a time. Imagine if every development had to build a new well and water treatment system, and the City then had to maintain every one of those systems for every subdivision. That includes pumps, addition of chlorine to disinfect the water, treatment units if there are contaminants at a particular well location, water quality sampling and testing at every location, etc. That many wells and treatment systems would cause the need for an increase in staffing and equipment. Instead, the City performs these functions primarily at two locations and does so much more efficiently. 

To bring this full circle, if a developer was not able to pay cash-in-lieu but instead had to bring usable water rights to the table, they would have a 5-8 year water rights process without certainty they would reach the end and be able to build. As such, landowners developing their property might simply move to areas in the valley with much shorter development timeframes and certainty and result in increasing residential development throughout the County outside of Bozeman City limits, more traffic on the City’s roads from commuters outside city limits, all impacts to Bozeman’s infrastructure and services without the tax base to support those services. The cash-in-lieu of water rights tool plays a role in protecting our natural and agricultural lands from the impacts of sprawl by facilitating development within Bozeman.  

1) Reduce demand with water conservation systems and techniques; or  

2) bring useable water rights to the City.  

Water conservation techniques are now used on every development project to reduce the demand side of the equation, as this is the cheapest solution regarding water supply. This includes recently adopted regulations for landscaping and irrigation in new development.  

Regarding Option 2 (bringing useable water rights and the associated infrastructure to the table), it is complex, risky, and takes approximately 5-8 years to accomplish, which is well beyond the timeframe of most development projects. Further, water rights must be connected with construction of water supply infrastructure, a process that doesn’t lend itself to “one-off” development projects (i.e. constructing a well with every development). These realities leave the cash-in-lieu of water rights a function of almost every development in Bozeman. 

The City has purchased water shares in the Hyalite Reservoir with cash-in-lieu funds. We have relied on willing sellers to come forward and offer the shares for purchase. To date, the City owns approximately 60% of the water shares in the Hyalite Reservoir.  

Other options also exist for use of the cash-in-lieu funds. The City is currently working to develop a new water supply well, and cash-in-lieu funds will be used to purchase and develop water rights for a new well.  

The cash-in-lieu fund may also be used to further develop the City’s water conservation program. We have not yet used the cash-in-lieu fund for this purpose. 

In 2024, we provided 7,100 acre-feet of water to residents and businesses. 1 acre-foot of water can supply approximately 4 single family homes or 8 multi-family units annually. During a normal water year, the City has water rights of 16,517 acre-feet of water. In a 1 in 50-year drought condition, the City conservatively estimates it has access to 11,920 acre-feet of water. Therefore, the City currently consumes 43% of its current water supply in a normal water year or 60% of its supply during a significant drought condition.  

This water supply picture is a snapshot in time. We continue to develop water supply and demand-side conservation that will improve the resilience of our existing water supply and expand available water supply.