Clark Fork Coalition v. Montana Wel

¶47 Every judicial officer who has considered the subject statute has recognized the ambiguity inherent in the Legislature’s employment of the term “combined appropriation” in this context. Addressing the ambiguity, the District Court considered legislative history, purposes of the iterations of the statute, water law commentaries, and the administrative record. The DNRC Hearing Examiner did the same and upheld the challenged administrative rule, concluding that “the most common definition [] of ‘combined’ is physically joined together. Therefore, the ‘physically manifold’ requirement under…