(1) Legal demands usually exist on the source of supply or its downstream tributaries and may be affected by a proposed water right application, including prior appropriations and water reservations. These existing legal demands will be senior to a new application and the senior rights must not be adversely affected:

(a) an applicant may use a plan for mitigation or aquifer recharge, as generally defined in 85-2-102, MCA, as a means of showing water is legally available.

(2) The applicant must identify the existing legal demands on the source of supply and those waters to which it is tributary and which the applicant determines may be affected by the proposed appropriation.

(3) The applicant must provide an abstract of those water rights identified.

(4) After an application is deemed correct and complete, for public notice purposes the department shall, independent of the information provided by the applicant under this chapter, identify existing water right owners that may be affected by the proposed application.