Commissioners wrong to oppose water compact

I was disappointed to learn that the Flathead County Board of Commissioners informed the governor and legislators that it opposes the Salish and Kootenai Tribal Water Compact. I raise hay on 240 acres in Moiese Valley and support the compact because it is the best way to maintain water deliveries to all irrigators, including my farm.

In its letter the board attached a resolution passed by our local irrigation board, the Flathead Joint Board of Control. However the resolution reflects the fact that the FJBC has not done its homework and is misleading.

For example, the FJBC resolution states that the compact takes “Irrigation Project Water Rights or Individual Landowners’ Water Rights and transfers them to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT).” But the FJBC does not have a water right; it only has water right claims. Even worse, the state DNRC informed the FJBC in 2010 that the claims were unclear and incomplete.

The FJBC resolution also does not explain that the U.S. Department of Interior also filed claims on project water but on behalf of the Tribes not the FJBC or individual irrigators.

The FJBC resolution also is misleading because the FJBC itself decided not to participate in the public compact negotiations that began last September at the governor’s request. Thus the resolution includes complaints that are addressed in the revised compact.

For example, the FJBC resolution states that the compact “requires” individual landowners “to relinquish” any claims to irrigation water. That was language in the old agreement, but the revised compact drops that restriction and makes it clear that anyone who believes they have a water right can submit their claim to the Montana Water Court for determination as to whether that claim is a valid water right.

I hope that the Flathead County commissioners will reconsider and support the compact. —Dick Erb, Moiese