Water compact needs more time
It’s pretty telling when a Republican state representative who sat on the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission says he doesn’t think a tribal compact will pass the Republican-controlled Legislature, and then goes on to talk about “Plan B” for getting the compact passed in the future.
But that’s exactly what Rep. Dan Salomon of Ronan did recently. Salomon said the water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes won’t pass, and he plans to introduce legislation that will call for a legislative study of the compact over the next two years.
While the tribes are surely eager to see it pass, a two-year period of front-and-center sunlight for the compact shouldn’t be viewed negatively. Montanans should have the ability to fully digest an agreement that will have implications for Western Montana for generations to come, and state lawmakers should be obligated to have a good understanding of what the compact is all about before ratifying it.
Truth is, there are only a handful of people in the state who know the compact well, and that’s really not anybody’s fault. While it took around a decade to negotiate, the compact in its current and much amended form has only been around for a couple of months.
The main purposes of the compact are to quantify tribal water rights on and off the Flathead Reservation, create a system for administering water rights on the reservation and establishing a water-use agreement for irrigators on the reservation. Backers repeatedly make the pitch that the compact is the best way to avoid rampant litigation over water rights in the future.
They may be right, but litigation has already ensued over the compact. A negotiated water-use agreement for irrigators was taken to court by an irrigators organization, and a district judge ruled that the agreement is unconstitutional. So, one of three main components of the compact is on judicial ice until an appeal is taken up by the Montana Supreme Court. That alone is enough to give some lawmakers pause on ratifying the agreement.
That is one reason why Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, has advanced a bill that would extend the authority of the Water Rights Compact Commission to negotiate a Salish-Kootenai compact over the next two years. If passed in conjunction with Salomon’s bill, this might result in a healthy process whereby input from lawmakers could prompt the commission to make further justifiable amendments to make the compact palatable to more people.
If so, the final product might be a lot easier for the Legislature to endorse two years from now.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.