LETTER: Some assurances needed about water use...

I found Mr. Weaver’s letter about Montana Artesian to have some data which to me has absolutely no bearing on the use of water.

Now, my question for Mr. Weaver: Can and will you guarantee that you will not exceed your stated facts and your water usage will never change? Will you stick to your three trucks? If so, you failed to state the time frame for three trucks! Is that per hour? Per day, or what?

Will your hours always stay at 10 hours a day, six days a week? Will you guarantee that you will put in writing that these will never change — or, if you sell to someone else, that you will put it in writing for them? If surrounding wells in the valley need drilling deeper, will you pay for them? Will you guarantee our ponds and lake will stay at the levels they have been over the years?

These are some of the factors on which we need an iron-clad contract to protect the vast majority of people in the Flathead Valley.

Please realize that agricultural irrigation goes on for only a short time out of the 12 months. A lot of the water is not used by the ag crops and percolates back into our aquifers. —Gary Weist, Creston