Panel OKs tribal water compact

The proposed water compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes was approved Monday by the state’s compact commission in Helena, clearing the path for the proposal to head to the Montana Legislature.

No one on the nine-member Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission voted against the proposal, although Commissioner Gene Etchart was unable to attend and Commissioner Mark DeBruyker sent a representative to vote for the compact in his stead.

The Helena meeting, attended by an estimated 200 people, was the last of four public meetings held by the state commission to explain the revised water rights compact and receive public comments. 

A revised version of a proposal that failed to pass the Legislature in 2013, the compact aims to quantify the tribes’ water rights while spending $55 million to upgrade the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project and cover related expenses of the agreement.

Changes to the compact, made public last week, sought to address concerns raised by irrigators and legislators in 2013. The new version also incorporates recommendations of an interim committee created to study the agreement after the last legislative session.

State Sen. Dick Barrett, D-Missoula, a compact commissioner, said the compact’s supporters are still deliberating their legislative strategy but the bill would likely head to the Senate first.

“Senate President Debby Barrett was on the commission and voted for it last night, so I assume it has support from the [Senate] leadership,” he said. “I think it will probably get off to a good start being introduced in the Senate.”

Both he and Sen. Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, indicated state Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, would likely introduce the bill, although Vincent said he was still reviewing the language and wouldn’t make a decision until later in the week.

“I’m still … making sure the compact contains the recommendations the [Interim] Water Policy Committee required the commission and tribes to consider in their negotiated settlement,” Vincent said.

Debby Barrett said she expects to send the bill to the Natural Resources Committee, although depending on the wording in the title, it could end up in the Judiciary Committee.

Fellow compact commissioner and state Rep. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, said he has not yet committed to introducing the bill, although he is listed as the sponsor for the compact’s bill draft in the House.

“I expect it will take a few weeks before it gets drafted and run through the legal department and all the things that a bill has to go through before it gets introduced,” he said, adding he hopes to have it sent to the Natural Resources Committee.

To take effect, the compact must become state law, be ratified by both the U.S. Congress and the tribal leadership, then be incorporated into a decree of the Montana Water Court.

However, Catherine Vandemoer, who heads the board of the anti-compact Montana Land and Water Alliance, vowed to fight it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

“There are ripe targets for [litigation]: the creation of a new water right, the transfer of a title of other people’s water rights to the CSKT [and] the Unitary Management Board, which is in clear violation of the Montana Constitution,” Vandemoer said.

She added the revised compact language ignored the wishes of many irrigators who will be affected.

“They’ve added a couple things that are really unnecessary and overall the commission has refused to listen to the public, to thousands of comments,” she said.

Dick Barrett disagreed.

“I think a number of people felt the protections for irrigators have been strengthened as a result of those changes,” he said, adding that of the 41 people who offered comments at the meeting, 33 expressed support.

Reporter Samuel Wilson may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com