~Basil

Snip

Just outside a subdivision overlooking Lake Helena, a sandy, 12-acre field scattered with sagebrush and gopher holes lies almost barren. Sparsely strewn throughout the dry tilled field, little green sprouts no taller than an inch cling to the last bit of moisture from the spring rains.

They aren’t alfalfa sprouts, not bean sprouts, not anything one could find in a grocery store. They’re hemp — a close relative of marijuana — but with insignificant levels of the drug’s psychoactive effects.

Montana’s Industrial Hemp Pilot Program is underway for the first time this year, allowing approved farmers to grow the fibrous plant under oversight from the state Department of Agriculture. However, the little plants in the Helena Valley field are going without water due to conflicting regulations coming from federal and state authorities.

Kim Phillips moved here from Idaho, built a house, leased a field, licensed a business, spent two years navigating the bureaucracy to become a legal hemp grower through the pilot program and invested about $6,000 in this year's crop. Rain provided enough water for the seeds to germinate, but as the heat of summer descended on her new farm, she hit her most dire roadblock yet.

Phillips was denied access to water by the Helena Valley Irrigation District on Thursday because her plants are ineligible for federally controlled water.

The Bureau of Reclamation, charged with regulating and distributing water from federal reservoirs, holds a statute banning the use of its water on federally controlled substances, which includes marijuana and its close relative, hemp, even if a state has legalized either of the substances.