70-22-203. Use of x- and y-coordinates. (1) For the Montana coordinate system NAD 27, the plane coordinate values for a point on the earth's surface used to express the geographic position or location of such point in the appropriate zone of this system shall consist of two distances expressed in terms of a United States survey foot and decimals of a foot.
(2) For the Montana coordinate system NAD 83, the plane coordinate values for a point on the earth's surface used to express the geographic position or location of such point in the zone shall consist of two distances expressed in either meters and decimals of a meter or in feet and decimals of a foot. The international conversion value (1 foot equals 0.3048 meters exactly) shall be used. The unit of measure shall be clearly stated when the coordinate values are expressed.
(3) One of the distances used to express a position or location, to be known as the "x-coordinate", shall give the position in an east-and-west direction; the other, to be known as the "y-coordinate", shall give the position in a north-and-south direction. These coordinates shall be made to depend upon and conform to plane rectangular coordinate values for the monumented points of the North American horizontal geodetic control network as published by the national ocean survey/national geodetic survey or its successors and whose plane coordinates have been computed on the systems designated by this part. Any such station may be used for establishing a survey connection to either Montana coordinate system.