Bozeman Pass zoning district is worth a try

By Chronicle Editor

The efforts to create a Bozeman Pass zoning district in response to J.M. Huber Corp.'s plans to explore for coalbed methane has run into predictable difficulties. Getting rural Montanans to sign on to zoning regulations can be like pulling eye teeth.

Huber has bought up a spate of Bozeman Pass-area mineral rights that were separated from the surface rights years ago. By law, the firm has access to any coalbed methane that may lie below the surface and, historically, the surface owner has little to nothing to say about it.

Coalbed methane extraction can be noisy, disruptive and produces a lot of mineral-laden groundwater that, when dumped on the ground, can harm vegetation. Though there is widespread apprehension among landowners in the Bozeman Pass area, the petition drive to form a zoning district for purposes of trying to regulate any coalbed methane development in the area has fallen short of getting the necessary 60 percent of landowner signatures needed to move the process forward.

The idea of zoning anywhere in a footloose, liberty-loving place like Montana is always going to be a hard sell. Montanans, by and large, don't take too well to any kind of government regulation. As zoning district supporters hammered out the district's regulations, they included enough non-coalbed methane land-use restrictions to alienate a substantial number of landowners within the proposed district - enough that the effort now appears to be stalled.

And that's too bad.

Mineral law tilts the playing field in favor of Huber and against the landowners. If substantial deposits of coalbed methane are discovered in the area, landowners there could be in for a rough time.

Even with the formation of a zoning district with strict regulations on how coalbed methane development may be conducted, the landowners may be out of luck. Almost certainly the regulations would be challenged in court by Huber with the outcome anything but certain.

But at least a legal zoning district would give the landowners one more weapon in their battle to protect their land and homes from unwanted coalbed methane development. Gallatin County commissioners declared a temporary moratorium on coalbed methane development, but that's set to expire in August. Bozeman Pass area landowners have put too much time and effort into this to let it die. Though time is short, proponents may want to scramble to amend the proposed zoning regulations and win the support of opponents.

Mineral law is archaic and needs revision. Surface rights owners need more protections, and modern case law will be the best way to bring about some of that needed change. A Bozeman Pass zoning district may help establish some of that case law.

Reader Comments