Reasons to reject the CSKT Water Compact

It is apparent that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Water Compact is not about obtaining additional water to make the reservation more productive.

The federal government made the reservation productive by building the model Flathead Irrigation Project along with the SKQ Dam and electricity generation. There is already enough irrigation water for all of the 128,000 acres of irrigatable land on this 1.3 million acre reservation. 

Most of that water comes from the Mission Mountains and some from the Flathead River. The federal government has invested billions of dollars to make the reservation productive. 

Tribal leaders have said that this water compact will settle unspecified damages suffered by the tribe through violations of the Hellgate Treaty. Those damages are not listed anywhere in the CSKT Water Compact and the Hellgate Treaty makes no mention of water. 

What I believe this compact does is give to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes the following:

• The Flathead Irrigation Project which the irrigators have already paid for.

• All the available water for future development from the headwaters of the Flathead River, Hungry Horse Dam and Flathead Lake.

• Management of all the water on the reservation and taking all individual water rights.

• Control of all the instream flows using a robust flow standard, not a fish survival standard.

• Control of some county roads, bridges and infrastructure, including the Bison Range.

• Free access across private property in Lake, Flathead and Sanders counties with no civil recourse. 

• Land swaps and loss of Bison Range, which damages the economy of the counties.

• More land inside and outside the reservation, including federal forest land.

• A compact that makes it almost impossible to sue for damages if not a tribal member.

• $1.9 billion from the federal government and $55 million from the state of Montana based on damages by the federal government which are not listed in the compact. No money goes to individual tribal members or to the 2,500 who left. The Tribal Council spends the money with no accountability.

• This is a precedent setting piece of legislation. It will alter the policy regarding off reservation water rights and land of reservations throughout the United States.

There are problems on the reservation, especially with water issues and the irrigation project, but they can be solved by shifting the oversight of the irrigation project to the Bureau of Reclamation and the management and operation of the irrigation project to land owners who have paid for it and continuing state of Montana administration of state-based water rights. 

Deferred maintenance of the irrigation project, adequate water at the right time, low cost block of electric power and racial conflict would cease to be major problems.

Verdell Jackson served in the state Senate and House as a Republican. He lives in Kalispell.