State added as defendant in lawsuit over compact

Attorneys for the Flathead Joint Board of Control on Wednesday added a new defendant — the state of Montana — to a lawsuit over the water rights compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

The Joint Board filing adds the state of Montana to previous defendants, Gov. Steve Bullock and members of the  64th Legislature.  

The Joint Board claims that the compact among the state, tribes and federal government was improperly approved by the 2015 Legislature.

The board is fighting to have the compact nullified.

Lawyers for the board want a court injunction to halt the water compact bill that was approved in the Legislature Feb. 26. The complaint claims that the Legislature passed the compact bill improperly because it did not receive a two-thirds vote.

Gov. Bullock later signed the compact bill into law.

A state attorney at the Wednesday hearing in Polson said he expects to file a motion to dismiss the Joint Board of Control complaint.

Lake County District Judge James Manley set a calendar of events that will take roughly 120 days to complete all the potential procedures involved in achieving a final decision.

In their original complaint filed April 20, lawyers for the Joint Board of Control asked for an injunction to stop implementation of the compact legislation. Lawyers for the board claim that the bill creates a governing body that would be immune to future lawsuits, therefore under state law it should have required a two-thirds vote to pass.

Since the Legislature convenes in Helena, the Joint Board’s attorneys had asked to have the venue changed from Lake County to Lewis and Clark County. Manley disagreed and ruled May 27 that the case would stay in Lake County.

The Joint Board of Control administers money that irrigators pay to operate the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. The project provides irrigation on about 127,000 acres in Northwest Montana.

The project contains over 1,100 miles of irrigation ditches and canals and is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The project was formerly operated by the Joint Board of Control before one of the districts on the joint board ceded from the board two years ago forcing control of the project back to the federal government.