Below please find a copy of a letter to the editor submitted by Tim Orr to the Valley Journal for publication. His letter discusses the Flathead Project Irrigator meeting held on Monday May 15th, in Polson.
The news Tim conveys in his letter is astounding to say the least, and is exactly what objectors in the water court are fighting against.
After the compact failed in the 2013 legislature, Montana stepped in to “negotiate” on behalf of irrigators. Not only was that illegal (it is the irrigators that have a contract with the United States, not the state), but the actions Tim describes below are exactly what the parties to the compact paved the way for in the Flathead Water Compact.
At the first “re-negotiation” meeting in September 2014, Montana promised the tribes that not a drop of irrigation project water would change in the compact. And true to their word, not a drop of water changed.
The compact will reduce deliveries of water to irrigators on the Flathead Project by 20-74% below their historic use, based upon an irrigator’s location within the project and the duty of water designated for their land.
The so called “re-negotiation meetings” were simply a distractive dog and pony show for the purpose of giving the public the impression that the compacting parties were working to address irrigator’s concerns.
The only question we have, is why would the tribe be taking such aggressive action now, when the Compact is being considered by the water court?
Have they made a mistake by drawing attention to the compact’s effect of destroying agriculture too soon? We pray that is EXACTLY what they’ve done.
Many thanks to Tim for sharing this information.
Flathead Project Irrigators:
On Monday, the Flathead Project Operator had a meeting in Polson, concerning the Flathead Project for 2023.
The first thing mentioned, was the this is no longer an Irrigation Project, it’s a fishery’s Project. Management also said they will have a 60 day flush of water down the creeks, even if they have to use stored irrigation water.
They also said mistakes will be made this year as they try to fulfill Tribal fishery goals. Also mentioned that they lost most of the early flush of runoff flows.
Yearly quota was not set because the BIA does not know how much water Tribal Fishery’s will require.
The good news for Flathead District Irrigators is that all reservoirs the serve the northern districts are close to full, probably next week this will happen. Moiese, Valley View, some parts of Pablo are irrigating now.
Mission and Jocko reservoirs at the time of this meeting were low, Tabor and Jocko Reservoirs under 15%, no water in the Mission district’s canals.
The Manager noted that until district reservoirs are a 50%< BIA would not deliver water. This is a false statement because historic delivery could be from April 15 to September 15, all you have to maintain is minimum pools in reservoirs. At the close of the 2022 season, Flathead Project reservoirs had 15,000-acre feet of water left.
Thats enough irrigation on 45,000 acres. BIA moved 2500-acre feet from Mission reservoir to Kicking Horse in January 2023.
Also, over 10,000-acre feet was pumped to Pablo Reservoir. Mission/Jocko districts paid $60,000 to pay for this.
A few things for you Irrigators to think about, this was built a Federal Irrigation Project, you have a first lien on your property to prove that it’s still there. The Tribe had no part in construction, but they were paid 3 times for the land, Reservoirs, and structures sit on. The next major things is that the CSKT compact in not fully passed, it must be approved by the Montana Water Court, this might take up to 4 years to get through all the hearings. One more important thing is that Montana law says the compact cannot be implemented until that review is final.
We will not survive 2023, if Tribal Fishery’s run Flathead Project. You are paying $35.50/ acre for Irrigation water, In 2024 it jumps to $39,00 per acre. Tribal fishery pays none.
Those who supported the compact, this is what we got, total loss of the Irrigation Project and loss of 2 irrigations and stock water. We urge you to call Daines, Tester, Rosendale, Zinke, and Gianforte, and ask them to stay implementation of the CSKT compact till its fully passed by the Water Court and operate the Project as it’s been for 113 years.
Tim Orr, St. Ignatius, Mt.
For your reference here are links to the documents provided for the meeting:
Western Montana Water Rights 
Honestly, I think the time of polite intercourse with our governments is passing. We play by the rules but they do not? They have other fish to fry. They do not represent us any longer and so need to be reminded who it is that put them there and who it is they serve – yes, SERVE. It is time to make a very public statement to our state government, that the media would certainly pick up, and the feds could not fail to see. As an example, Im talking about the sort of thing that has been done in the past where a dump-truck load of the appropriate subject matter debris was dumped on the capitol steps as a public demonstration. Appropriate in this case should be discussed but could be something as simple as a large load of rotten hay or bovine manure. Without water there wont be hay or cattle. There wont be agriculture. That’s a pretty wide open field to draw from for such a demonstration. And there is no shortage of Ag folks to bring machinery or rotten hay to an organized peaceful demonstration. Right now no level of public empowered government is listening.
Great comment Louis. We agree that times like this call for creative pushback measures.
Besides having other fish to fry, the compacting parties are all hiding behind water that now apparently belongs to the fish, and are using it as cover for sending the irrigator’s water downstream for the use of others located in the Columbia River basin.
Who knows what kind of deal the US / tribe might have for sending everything downstream for other uses?
We’ve been reading stories that in the Netherlands they are shutting down farming because of the impact on the environment:
https://www.beefcentral.com/news/dutch-govt-to-shut-down-up-to-3000-farms-sparking-more-protests/
We believe that the compact and the 10,000 claims are the United States way of shutting down agriculture for the same ludicrous reason.
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