Water board attends closed meeting concerning power rates
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
ST. IGNATIUS – The Flathead Joint Board of Control attended a conference that could have effects on the cost of power for irrigators, although the results of the meeting were undisclosed.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hosted the conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this month. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the FJBC were in attendance.
FERC regulates the transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. They also license hydropower projects including the Seliš Ksanka Qĺispe dam, which is what the conference was about.
CSKT and FERC negotiated the terms of the license for the dam at the conference. The negotiations involved discussion over how the license will be implemented as far as the low-block cost of power for the irrigation project. If the low-block cost of power disappears from the licensing agreement, it could double power rates for the project.
Provisions in the Water Compact seek to maintain the low-block cost of power, but the public won’t know the exact terms of the licensing until negotiations are finished in the next few weeks.
At the Tuesday, Jan. 26 special meeting for the FJBC, Chairman Boone Cole reported that he wasn’t able to discuss the contents of the conference with the public while licensing terms were being negotiated, but he did say he was working to get the best deal for the irrigators.
In other business, the Compact Implementation Technical Team was on the agenda. The State of Montana and CSKT organized CITT to begin the first steps toward implementing the Water Rights Compact. CITT is tasked with advising the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. The CITT held their first meeting on Dec. 3, 2015.
In past meetings, FJBC voted not to appoint a representative to the CITT board in protest of the early implementation of the Water Compact because it hasn’t finished making its way through congress, although it passed at the state level.
Members of the FJBC stated that they weren’t informed that the CITT held a meeting. The board voted to appoint Wade Shepard in protest to represent the irrigators in an effort to become more informed about the CITT meetings, although the FJBC isn’t sure if the CITT will accept the appointment.
The FJBC made a second motion to send notice to CITT informing them that the FJBC believes that open meeting laws were violated because the CITT meeting dates were not posted in local news sources — although FJBC member Dick Erb attended the CITT meeting. Erb said he didn’t know that the FJBC wanted information about the meetings because they were objecting to the implementation of the compact.
Erb learned about the CITT meeting from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation website. Compact Implementation Supervisor Arne Wick confirmed that the CITT meeting notices were posted on the DNRC website along with an agenda, and now the meeting minutes and a summary can be found on the site.
Erb said most of the CITT meeting focused on discussing operating procedures and implementing a website, which is not yet available.
FJBC voted to pay the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project bills as usual, although some members wanted to withhold payment until a report is received concerning a breakdown of employee wages for the project as was received in the past.
The board discussed the possibility of an independent person being hired to document problems with water issues on the project. Those problems might include an irrigator not receiving enough water during the summer. It was noted that in the past irrigators have had issues that they didn’t know how to settle. The matter will be discussed further during future meetings.
Four seats on the FJBC are up for election on Monday, Feb. 8. Those seats are currently held by Chairman Cole for the Jocko district, Wayne Blevins for the Flathead district, Shane Orien for the Flathead district, and Jerry Laskody for the Mission district.
Board members said they would like to get back to a regular schedule for board meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m.
