Articles with the Tag: Water rights
The Flathead Joint Board of Control has voted to recommend that irrigators vote in favor of the negotiated Water Use Agreement. It also authorized the expenditure of more than $30,000 to “educate” irrigators and poll their support, or lack thereof, for the WUA. As three of the four FJBC commis...
Negotiators for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Flathead Joint Board of Control, and the United States have developed a proposed Flathead Indian Irrigation Project Water Use Agreement for consideration by the organizations they represent. The FIIP Water Use Agreement is a critical piece o...
On Dec. 12, attorneys for the Western Montana Water Users Association, LLC, filed a complaint in Lake and Sanders County District Court alleging violations of Montana law by the Flathead Joint Board of Control. District Judge C.B. McNeil issued a writ of mandate ordering the FJBC to comply with Mont...
By now you’ve heard about the debate and concerns regarding the long-anticipated state-tribal water compact in the Mission Valley. If successful, the compact will end decades of uncertainty and establish how water rights are managed for all residents in the Flathead Valley. The compact would also br...
POLSON — During a five-day road trip around Western Montana, the negotiating teams for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the State of Montana and the United States brought the proposed Water Rights Compact to Polson and solicited comments and questions at a meeting on Nov. 28. From Polson...
The irrigators on the Flathead Irrigation Project need to realize that if the proposed irrigation water use agreement is approved as written, it will not be “business as usual” with regard to irrigation water delivery and will have dire implications for agriculture in the Mission Valley. Prese...
Editor, If you cede, relinquish or convey your right, title and interest in some property you claim to own (at the time), how is it that 150 years later, your 7,000-plus descendents can re-claim control over said property through a granted right of use, in common, with about 900,000 other people — w...
Editor, The Water Compact approach to domestic wells has not received much public attention. On the positive side, all existing wells will be protected once they are registered. My concern is a “one size fits all” approach to new wells. Under state law, automatic approval for a...
Editor, How is that after roughly 10 years of “negotiating,” the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission for the Flathead Reservation has only a skeleton document to present to the Montana State Legislature during the next legislative session in 2013, before the commission sunsets in July 201...
Editor, The much-discussed CSKT-FJBC water use agreement draft violates an important principle that has guided this water compact negotiation: existing uses must be protected. If adopted, the draft agreement would put many farm and ranch families — tribal and nontribal — out of business, becau...
