© 2024 Concerned Citizens of Western Montana
Many thanks to the folks that circulated an email about the effort in Montana to pass legislation pertaining to the metering of wells. It was simple and to the point:
Are you aware that the MT DNRC is going to put forth a bill next session that would require ALL exempt wells to have water meters put on them due to a “shortage” of water. Ask your state Representative. This is for real. DNRC has taken their dog and pony show on the road for the past year, visiting with most if not all the county commissioners. I assume it is to educate them on the “water shortage”. In other words, they’re already priming the pump.
~ When people sleep the wheels of Government still grind to eat away at their freedom. ~ LC
What else would you expect when you have a state that willingly ceded most if not all of the water in western Montana to the United States and CSKT? It is also a state that refuses to this day to tell the public how much water they ceded and whether there is even any “surplus” water to conserve.
What else would you expect from state that did nothing to stave off the 10,000 claims filed by the United States and CSKT covering 2/3 of the state?
The state did nothing about these claims because they are there for the coercive purpose of beating the Water Court into Flathead Compact approval out of fear of having to reopen the adjudications in most of Montana’s water basins. The threat is that should the Water Court opt to void the compact, all hell will break loose in the form of an adjudicative nightmare.
Could this be about the Enforcement of the CSKT Compact Water Rights?
Technically the CSKT have no jurisdiction over non-Indians, however the compact awards it to them via tribal control over the Unitary Management Board and the award of vast amounts of water with time immemorial priority dates.
Because of the tribe’s priority date, the CSKT government and its “fisheries” will never share a water shortage. By definition, the time immemorial claims in the compact shift the burden for any shortages of water, whether they be real or tribally created, to the people. Both Indian and non-Indian. The burden will fall first upon the backs of irrigators, and then to everyone else because of the way a water call works.
We have often wondered how the state of Montana would position itself in terms of “enforcement” of the tribes claims once they are officially being enforced.
After all, if the DNRC and courts were to be seen as the enforcement arm of the tribal water rights, their water compact jig would be up. People would connect it to the compact and to the state’s relinquishment of its water and its jurisdiction over it.
What better way to distance water shortages from the CSKT Compact than to put forth a full blown conservation effort based upon future growth and development as well as climate change?
Remember, the tribe attempted to plant the climate change seed last year with the Flathead Lake water level fiasco created by Energy Keepers dumping too much water out of the lake early in the year.
The Powers that Be are Light Years Ahead of Us
Western Montana Conservation Commission
The Western Montana Conservation Commission (WMCC) is a uniquely structured non-regulatory organization that works to accomplish its important mandate in a consensus-building manner, stressing education, cooperation, broad-based community involvement, partnerships with agencies and nonprofit groups, and the voluntary participation of western Montana residents. The commission represents a wide cross-section of citizens and local, state, tribal, and federal agency representatives who strive to identify Western Montana’s water quality and aquatic invasive species problems and work collectively to implement the most effective solutions.
The Western Montana Conservation Commission is administratively attached to the State of Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) and serves as a convening body to facilitate close cooperation and coordination between federal, state, provincial, tribal, and local resource managers to monitor the condition of aquatic and natural resources across Western Montana.
Members and Staff
The WMCC membership, with representatives from federal, state, tribal, and local government, as well as citizen members, enables us to work across jurisdictional boundaries and embrace a multi-agency approach to problem solving, leading to success on a number of challenging issues.
In addition to the compact approved and tribally controlled UMB and CITT for the reservation, this organization was likely created for the purpose of “coordinating” with the US / CSKT on the enforcement of their compact based water rights.
The membership of this organization will exert influence upon the legislature for the purpose of ratifying legislation that affected citizens are for the most part unaware of.
Assigning a large number of legislators to such an organization is sure to reap the benefits of legislative ratifications to advance a federal agenda over our water under the guise of conservation.
If this isn’t the very definition of Agenda 21, Agenda 2030, we don’t know what is.
DNRC Comprehensive Water Review
Then there is the ongoing DNRC Comprehensive Water Review process where a group of stakeholders develop water policy for the state of Montana. Their webpage says this:
Montana is at a crossroads of new opportunities in water management and administration. We need to protect existing uses while still ensuring reliable supplies for growing communities and economies. The Comprehensive Water Review is the evaluation and reformation of state water administration undertaken by the Department to meet future water needs and protect existing users in the state of Montana. The Stakeholder Working Group is a facilitated forum for the Department to work alongside stakeholders on developing policy reforms for priority issues.
We’ve written about this DNRC effort before. It is the group that brought forth SB72 and other legislative efforts pertaining to water. Does the Compact Give the CSKT a Seat at Montana’s Water Policy Table?
The exempt well information noted in the email mentioned above comes from the same group of “stakeholders” that tried to give us SB72 to revamp the water court. While it failed in the legislature, rest assured that this effort will be pushed until it succeeds in the legislature.
COMPREHENSIVE WATER REVIEW PROJECTS LIST
Final Decree Transition Determine if the current statutory structure for the post final decree administration and regulation of water rights are adequate to meet future water policy objectives.
Water Right Application Process – we believe they got this through the legislature in 2023 – Evaluate and update the water right application process so that it is timely, transparent, streamlined, and consistent.
Changes – Mitigation – Exceptions – This is connected to the exempt well effort among other things – Evaluate the coordination of water development, use, and protection to meet new demands in Montana.
Drought Management – Develop tools, Information, and policy recommendations to support drought adaptation and mitigation efforts of Montana communities and businesses.
Update DNRC Water Rights Query System – in process – Update the Water Right Query System to be a user-friendly tool that easily provides access to full, accurate, detailed information about Montana water rights.
“STAKEHOLDERS” LIST
Below are lists of the members of the stakeholder working group according to the DNRC website.
No bios available that we could see, but it is highly likely that a good number of these folks are aligned with Montana’s federal agenda pertaining to its water resources and the state’s land acquisitions and conservation easement programs. See: Is Montana Being Federalized via Conservation Easements and Land Acquisitions?
2021-2022
Final Decree Transition
- John Bloomquist, Water Adjudication Advisory Committee WAAC, Water Attorney
- Abigail Brown, WAAC, Water Attorney
- Krista Lee Evans, Agriculture
- Peter Fritsch, Water Commissioner
- Andrew Gorder, Conservation/Water Attorney
- Thomas Jodoin, Municipal
- Ryan McLane, Hydropower/Water Attorney
- Mike Murphy, Irrigation
- Mike Roberts, Water Commissioner Trainer
- Melissa Schlichting, Tribal
- Ronda Wiggers, Development
Changes, Mitigation, Exceptions
- Pat Byorth, Conservation/Water Attorney
- Pat Eller, Development/Irrigation
- Krista Lee Evans, Agriculture
- Brian Heaston, Municipal
- Abby St. Lawrence/ Cory Shaw, Development
- Raylee Honeycutt, Agriculture
- Kelly Lynch, Municipal
- Ryan McLane, Hydropower/Water Attorney
- Julie Merritt, Water Consultant
- Deb Stephenson, Water Consultant
- John Tietz, Water Attorney
- John Youngberg, Agriculture
Here is a list of the Comprehensive Water Review Stakeholders for 2023-2024
- Abby Brown (Water Attorney)
- Alan Olson (Industrial)
- Andrew Gorder (Conservation)
- Arnold Bighorn (Tribal)
- Brian Heaston (Municipal)
- Clayton Elliot (Recreation)
- Spencer Woith (Domestic and New Development)
- Jan Thomson-Rouse (Hydropower)
- Jocelyn Cahill (Irrigation
- Julie Merritt (Water Consultant)
- Kelly Lynch (Municipal)
- Krista Lee Evans (Irrigation)
- Mark Taylor (Domestic and New Development)
- Nicole Rolf (Stock Water)
- Raylee Honeycutt (Stock Water)
- Ryan McLane (Water Attorney)
- Vicki Baker (Irrigation)
While the information above is “publicly” displayed on the DNRC website, these people work quietly behind the scenes to advance water policy for all, and to develop legislation for the Montana legislature to consider.
When People Sleep…….
The person forwarding the exempt wells email got it right.
While the state has people busy with the Flathead Water Compact proceedings and the adjudications that are currently taking place throughout western Montana, our DNRC is working on post adjudication projects such as enforcement and conservation.
What in the world is going on? We have abundant water resources in western Montana, enough for everyone. Why in the world are water meters and measurement devices necessary at all?
The implementation and eventual enforcement of the Flathead Water Compact is what is going on.
We must be vigilant about our water, because it is being used as a means to destroy agriculture and to exert control over the people.
Western Montana Water Rights 