© 2023 Concerned Citizens of Western Montana
We’d like to begin this article by introducing you to Amanda Kaster, the Director of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
According to the DNRC website, Kaster has a decade of experience working on energy and natural resources issues, most recently serving as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior. She was also the acting chief of staff and senior advisor at the Bureau of Land Management and an advisor in the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs. Kaster previously worked for Congressman Ryan K. Zinke of Montana, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine.
By all appearances and considering the history of the leadership of Montana’s DNRC, indoctrination by the Department of the Interior seems to be a pre-requisite for this position.
It’s almost as though the feds have a special training ground for the leadership of state natural resources agencies. Isn’t that interesting?
We recently asked you to consider whether Montana is being federalized via Conservation Easements and Land Acquisitions. We remind you of this, because we’d like you to keep in mind that what happens to our land goes hand in hand with what is going on with our water.
Today we want to look at a potential paradigm shift toward what could be the beginnings of the federalization of Montana State policy related to its Natural Resources.
SB72 Revise judicial administration of water rights
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-0 to table Steve Fitzpatrick’s legislation SB72, intended to revise the judicial administration of water rights throughout the state of Montana.
The timing of that legislation was suspect from the very beginning.
At a moment in time when the Water Court is completing a judicial view of the most controversial and overreaching of the State’s “water compacts”, why would Gianforte and his DNRC want to make revisions to the water court?
Why would the State want to insert politically appointed water court judges at a time when Western Montana was just getting started with its adjudication proceedings?
When it was introduced, SB72 carried an immediate effective date and provided for a political appointment of water court judges for the 4 water court districts in the state. It also proposed that just like in the CSKT Compact, the state District Courts be removed from the mix for resolution of water disputes.
We have to ask, how could this not be connected to implementation and review of the Flathead Water Compact and the adjudications, many currently going on in each of the water basins in western Montana that are affected by the CSKT Compact?
Politically appointed (and tribal approved?) water court judges could have been placed strategically to protect CSKT water interests during the adjudication process, or to ratchet down existing water uses that will necessarily be diminished because of the vast amounts of water awarded to the United States / CSKT in the compact.
While the fact that SB72 was tabled in the House Judiciary Committee is good news, this legislation is a warning that people need to be vigilant concerning every action taken by Montana with respect to our water.
We no longer have the luxury of thinking that Montana is working in the best interest of its citizens when it comes to private property ownership and the use of the State’s natural resources.
We believe that from here on out, there will be other such legislative and administrative efforts to change state water policy to comport with provisions of the Flathead Compact, and also to implement any Secretary of Interior amendments to the compact, unbeknownst to Montana legislators, and to the public. Continue reading