The top judge at Montana’s water court has been appointed to another term.
The Montana Supreme Court reappointed Russell McElyea of Bozeman to the top position at the state’s water court earlier this month. This will be McElyea’s second four-year term as the court’s chief judge.
He said he enjoys the complexity of water law and the far-reaching impacts of the court’s decisions.
“What’s interesting about water is that everything is connected,” he said. “You really have to be thinking down the road about unintended consequences when you write an order.”
The court deals with water right appeals and is charged with making final judgments on existing water rights within the state. The Montana Legislature created the court in 1979 to formally review 219,000 existing water rights within 85 river basins across the state, including rights held by cities, tribes, the federal government and individuals. It’s based in Bozeman, and it closes hundreds of cases each month.
McElyea began his career as a water attorney. After a stint as the CEO of Moonlight Basin Resort and a brief stint with a remnant of Lehman Brothers, he became the water court’s associate water judge, a position the state Legislature created to ease a case backlog.
After a year as the associate judge, McElyea replaced C. Bruce Loble as chief in 2013. Loble had held the position for more than 20 years.
In addition to the two judges, there are another 23 employees of the court. That includes attorneys who serve as water masters, essentially lower judges who help the two top judges deal with the caseload.
McElyea said they try to close about 5,000 claims each year. On average, the court has closed more than 400 claims per month in each of the last four years. In 2015, the court averaged 563 per month.
The court’s ultimate goal is to issue final decrees for each river basin in the state. Those decrees are issued after all the water rights in a basin have been reviewed by the court.
McElyea said he is looking forward to finishing that work, and he thinks they can begin issuing those decrees in the early 2020s.
“We’ve touched all of (the river basins),” he said. “We’re done in a fair number of them, or close to being done.”
He also reports to the state Legislature on the court’s progress, and he said he plans to work with the state to find a better way for resolving water disputes in the future. Even after final decrees are issued, he said, disputes will still pop up.
“There’s always going to be issues to resolve over water distribution,” he said.
McElyea’s wife Rienne McElyea is currently serving as one of three Gallatin County District Court judges, a position she started at the beginning of the year after being appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock.
Michael Wright can be reached at mwright@dailychronicle.com or at 582-2638. Follow him on Twitter @mj_wright1.
