Water compact commission is classic overreach

The task given “Federal Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission” by the Montana Legislature was to settle the federally reserved reservation water rights as defined by the 1908 Winters Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court throughout Montana.

It seems that the water-compact commission is no better than any federal agency — it flexed its muscles and significantly grew beyond its original intended (and granted) body size. When the commission finally sat down with the Salish and Kootenai Tribes to iron out a compact, how did they expand their concern to nearly ALL of Western Montana?

How is the Painted Rocks Reservoir south of Hamilton part of the Flathead Reservation? How are rivers up near Eureka part of a reservation? How is the Milltown Dam area part of the Flathead Reservation? How did all of this water become part of a federally reserved water right? By what stretch of the imagination did any water, outside of the Flathead Indian Reservation, become eligible to be gifted to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes by our governor, Steve Bullock, and the attorney general, Tim Fox?

This commission’s work is now threatening ALL of Western Montana; all 350,000 residents will be affected and adversely impacted by this out-of-control cancer. Make no mistake — everyone in Western Montana will lose, not just us on the Flathead Reservation. —Michael Gale, Ronan