Water compact not to be trusted
What’s not to like about the Salish and Kootenai water compact?
If you like your water, you can keep your water. Trust us. OOPS! ... Only to a decreased amount of 1.4 acre-feet (RDA maximum) from a historical 2.7 acre-feet. (Farm turn-out) (See the tribes’ Climate Change Strategic Plan, September 2013.)
If you like your water right, you can keep it. Trust us. OOPS!… Your water right will be transferred to the federal government in trust for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and you will receive a delivery certificate of unspecified/unquantified amounts. (See the Salish and Kootenai water compact.)
As a Montana citizen, if you like being under the jurisdiction and control of the state, you can keep it. Trust us. OOPS! … “…with respect to subject or to remove non-tribal rights on the reservation from the jurisdiction and control of the state and place that somewhere else at the tribe’s request.” (See the grand-bargain wordage from Chris Tweeten, Compact Commission Aug. 2, 2012.)
If you like your choice of agricultural production, you can keep it. Trust us. OOPS! … All agricultural producers will be encouraged to produce native crops. (Again refer to the tribal Climate Change Strategic Plan, September 2013, and Joint Board of Control expert testimony.) I don’t think potatoes, melons, grains or cattle are native crops.
If you like paying taxes, you can keep paying taxes, only you can pay lots more when the tribe owns Kerr Dam and removes it from the tax rolls. The taxpayers get to make up the $1.2 million in lost revenue. See Lake County Leader article, Dec. 4, 2014.
If you enjoy living in this beautiful area, you can continue living. Trust us. OOPS! “….those whites which cannot be bought or taxed out will have to be encouraged to leave by other means.” (See Joe Felman’s letter, 1985. “...We will strive to regain ownership and control of all lands within our reservation boundaries.” See Flathead Culture Overview 4-1996 (Salish and Kootenai Vision Statement))
Read the compact and references. Understand the words and the INTENT. This compact is not just about water. —Sheila Vallejo, Saint Ignatius