An applicant may not apply for a permit or permits for irrigation which, if approved, would enable a person, at any one time, to hold a conditional water permit or permits for more than seven hundred twenty acre-feet [888106.75 cubic meters] of water that has not been applied to beneficial use. Applications submitted in violation of this section may not be assigned a priority date and must be returned to the applicant by the department of water resources. This section may not apply to water permit applications from the Missouri River or to applications submitted by irrigation districts organized pursuant to this title. For the purposes of this section, “person”, when applied to an individual, means the individual and the individual’s spouse and dependents within the meaning of the Internal Revenue Code [26 U.S.C. § 152].