75-20-223. Board review of department decisions. (1) (a) A person aggrieved by the final decision of the department on an application for a certificate or the issuance of an air or water quality decision, opinion, order, certification, or permit under this chapter may within 30 days appeal the decision to the board. Except as provided in this section, the contested case provisions of the Montana Administrative Procedure Act, Title 2, chapter 4, part 6, apply to a hearing before the board.

(b) If the department provided an opportunity for public comment on the application, the request for a hearing must be limited to those issues the party has raised in comments made to the department during the comment period unless the issues are related to a material change in law made during the comment period, to a judicial decision issued after the comment period, or to a material change to the draft permit, which was submitted for public comment, made by the department in the final permit decision and upon which the public did not have a meaningful opportunity to comment. The request for hearing must be filed within 30 days after the department renders its decision. An affidavit setting forth the grounds for the request must be filed with the request for a hearing.

(c) If a hearing is requested by a person other than the applicant or permittee, the applicant or permittee may, by filing a written election with the board within 15 days of receipt of the request for hearing, elect to have the matter proceed to hearing before the board or to have the matter submitted directly to the district court for judicial review of the agency decision. The party who requests the hearing may elect to have the matter submitted either to the board for a hearing or to the district court for judicial review by submitting a written election to the board with the request for hearing. If there are conflicting elections between the parties, the matter must proceed to district court. If the applicant or permittee is not the person who requested the hearing and has elected to have the matter submitted to the district court, the person who submitted the request for a hearing shall file a petition for review of the permit decision within 15 days of receipt of notice from the permittee. If the person who requested the hearing has elected to have the matter proceed to district court, that person shall file a petition in district court within 15 days of filing the request. The petition must be limited to matters raised in the request for hearing and must be filed in the county in which the facility is located. If the applicant or permittee fails to make an election, the matter must proceed through the contested case process before the board pursuant to the Montana Administrative Procedure Act. The board or the district court shall apply the laws and rules in place when the department issued its decision, and the board or the district court may not consider any issue from a party that was not presented to the department for the department's consideration during the formal comment period unless the issue is related to a material change in law made during the comment period, to a judicial decision issued after the comment period, or to a material change to the draft permit, which was submitted for public comment, made by the department in the final permit decision and upon which the public did not have a meaningful opportunity to comment.

(2) A person aggrieved by the final decision of the department on an application for amendment of a certificate may within 15 days appeal the decision to the board as provided in subsections (1)(b) and (1)(c).

(3) A person aggrieved by the department's decision not to include an environmental impact statement or analysis in the department's findings pursuant to 75-20-216 may within 30 days appeal the decision as provided in subsections (1)(b) and (1)(c).

(4) The board shall issue a final decision within 4 months from the close of the hearing on the merits or, if no hearing is held, within 3 months from the date that briefing by the parties is complete unless the applicant and the party other than the applicant agree in writing to an extension of time.

(5) A customer fiscal impact analysis required by 69-2-216 may not be used as the basis of an appeal of a final decision by the department.