Water compact team welcomes new member during meeting
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PABLO – Before the Compact Implementation Technical Team started their meeting on Tuesday, March 15, they invited a new representative to the table.
Another board known as the Flathead Joint Board of Control voted to appoint Wade Shepard, an irrigator and cattle rancher, to the CITT to represent irrigators.
Shepard informed the CITT members that he would abstain from making a vote concerning any matter with the team because the majority of the FJBC members appointed him under protest of the water compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the state of Montana. The FJBC felt a representative was needed on the CITT to help keep the FJBC informed.
The CSKT-Montana Water Rights Compact passed at the state level in April of 2015 to quantify water rights concerning the Flathead Indian Reservation. The compact is currently making its way through congress.
Because it was ratified at the state level, the parties involved are required by law to organize a team to manage compact implementation. The CITT advises the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project on operational improvements and adaptive management as outlined in the compact.
The Compact Management Committee oversees the CITT with policy and administrative oversight. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Director John Tubbs is a member of the CMC team.
Members sitting at the table during the CITT meeting included DNRC surface water hydrologist Ethan Mace as the state’s representative. Peter Plant, acting project manager for the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, is also on the CITT. He is a hydrologist working on six water seasons with the FIIP.
CITT member Travis Teegarden is an agricultural engineer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seth Makepeace is a hydrologist on the team appointed by the tribe, and Ed Sheets was the neutral acting facilitator helping with the formation of the CITT.
The team began the meeting by discussing operating rules that were read through and accepted including membership rules, meeting guidelines, and recommendation procedures.
Makepeace explained that the meetings are open to the public, but they are considered working meetings to bring together a technical team to make recommendations to the project.
“This group is not a decision-making body,” he said.
Considering the technical nature of the meetings, the team explained to those in attendance that public comment needed to be made in writing and sent to the department by mail or through the website. It was stated that the team hopes to have conversations with the public outside of the meetings to hear concerns.
The meetings are focused on developing recommendations to CSKT, Montana and the United States governments in regards to water measurement, stock-water programs, and on-farm efficiency programs.
The team is also working on implementing a website with meeting announcements, recommendations and sources for public input. The site is expected to be operational in May.
Members of the team gave presentations concerning the overall history of water measurement systems, stock water programs, developing on-farm efficiency programs and information on modernizing the FIIP.
The next CITT meeting is currently scheduled for Friday, April 15, at 9:30 a.m. at Mission Valley Power.
