No More Water For Luxury Estate From Big Timber

One Town's Pushback Against Outsider Influence

If there is one thing that unites the citizens of Montana, it is our shared disdain for the elite who come to our state and take control.

That’s why it might bring a smile to people’s faces to hear that Big Timber will no longer sell its water to the Crazy Mountain Ranch.

How Much Water Was Really Bought?

Crazy Mountain Ranch (CMR), owned by Lone Mountain Land Co.—a subsidiary of the exclusive Big Sky Yellowstone Club—had been purchasing water from Big Timber for its golf course.

The group was paying $1,400 per 100,000 gallons and had transported 1,646,400 gallons of drinking water as of August 11, according to the Montana Free Press.

Doing some quick napkin math, that amounts to just over $23,000 paid to the City of Big Timber, which recently voted 3-2 to stop the sale of their water.

The Debate: Revenue vs. Resource Preservation

It was the volume of water being sold that first caught the attention of Big Timber residents, including Dulcie Rae Bue-Clavarino, who told Montana Free Press that every day, the golf course was getting as much as her family of five uses in six months.

Not everyone was in favor of stopping the sales, however, as city council member Leonard Woehler pointed out by saying the city was cutting off a potential revenue stream while they were operating in the red.

City council member Jeff Davis, who proposed the temporary ban of water sales, says the only way the city can continue to bulk sale their water is by creating a new bulk water sales policy, which has not been in place for the last 30 years.

Source: Montana Free Press