![]() He said the commission is strongly considering recommending to Governor Steve Bullock that negotiations be re-opened. ![]() So, Chair of the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission Chris Tweeten said that should be corrected. The language of the compact only refers to the Joint Board of Control. The problem is, that group has since dissolved into three different entities. Most of the private irrigators on the reservation signed onto the compact as one group, the Flathead Joint Board of Control. “We paid millions of dollars for it and didn’t feel that was something we needed to do.” “The problem is for policy-makers is there’s no way for us to validate that claim, one way or the other,” he said.Ĭonfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Attorney Rhonda Swaney says the tribes allowed state employees to look at the modeling for years, and it was only accessed once. He’s asking the tribes for information on how they arrived at the figures in their models, the figures which say irrigators won’t lose water through the compact. Chas Vincent (R-Libby) chairs the Water Policy Interim Committee. “It doesn’t add up with transpiration, it doesn’t add up with anything that I’ve been able to physically observe,” he said. But Swenson disagrees, he looks at the water use models put forth by the tribes, he looks at the water he needs, and to him it doesn’t add up. The tribes say irrigators will not lose water through the agreement. The compact is supposed to be a compromise with the government and with irrigators like John Swenson. They argue they could go to court and secure all of the water rights on the reservation. The Tribes have the oldest water rights dating back to before Montana was even a state. The water compact process was developed in the 1970s as a way to prevent decades of legal battles among the tribes, the government and the irrigators. “I’m not willing to give my water right up to anybody,” he the Legislature’s Water Policy Interim Committee, which is looking at the compact to try to decide whether to recommend passage during the next Legislature. He’s one of a large group of irrigators who feel they will lose water through the deal. He irrigates on fee land inside the Flathead Indian Reservation. John Swenson has a small ranch near Ronan. But, the Flathead Compact is the most complex and has proven to be the most controversial. Agreements reached by Montana’s Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission on the state’s other six reservations passed their first time through. The 2013 Legislature did not pass the Flathead compact-the first time that had happened. It would settle disputes over how water is shared on the Flathead reservation. The CSKT have been working on this agreement with the state and federal governments and private irrigators for at least a dozen years. More are calling for a re-opening of negotiations on the Flathead Water Compact, soon possibly including the state commission which helped craft the compact.īut the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes are holding firm with the current version.
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