Water management board discusses interim approach
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POLSON — When the Flathead Reservation Water Management Board met last week in Polson, members unanimously agreed to move ahead with two pivotal decisions: advertising for a water engineer and establishing an interim approach for processing domestic water allowances.
The five-member board convened Thursday, April 14, at KwaTaqNuk Resort in Polson for a meeting that lasted nearly three hours. About 14 people were present, and around 20 viewers attended via Zoom.
Since the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Water Compact was enacted last September, the board has become the exclusive regulatory body for water rights administration on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Their duties include issuing new water rights and approving applications to change existing uses. But without a water engineer to guide them, the board can’t fulfill those responsibilities.
They tackled that problem last week by approving a job description and salary range for the engineer ($120,000-$150,000) and authorizing advertisements for the position. The board acknowledged, however, that hiring a water engineer, who will serve as the key staff member as the board sorts through water use requests from across the reservation, is apt to take time.
“State and tribal offices have both been advertising for an engineer for months,” noted board chairman Clayton Matt.
For ideas on how begin processing domestic water claims until the engineer’s office is fully staffed, the board heard from tribal attorney Melissa Schlichting and hydrologists Seth Makepeace and Ethan Mace, both part of the Compact Implementation Technical Team.
The board considered three options: hiring a private consultant to handle the engineering duties; leaning on the compact implementation team, consisting of members of the CSKT and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, to help process claims; or creating a hybrid of those two.
Board members expressed concerns about adding to the demands already faced by the implementation crew. While Makepeace acknowledged that team members have “a very healthy workload,” he noted that the management board “is in a pretty serious corner” without a means to move through the ever-growing backlog of applications.
“Wells are being drilled as we speak, which is going to create problems down the road,” he said, adding that he views an interim permitting process as “a necessity.”
After lengthy consideration, the board approved moving forward with the hybrid option, and established work groups to create draft versions of the necessary application and authorization forms, and a preliminary Request for Proposal to send out to engineering firms for an interim engineer.
During the initial phase, only applications for individual and shared uses would be considered. More complex water use requests would be temporarily excluded, despite concerns expressed by board members that developers are frustrated with the delay.
Hydrologists pointed out that permitting water for housing developments and expanding use for existing water systems are more complex processes than authorizing domestic wells. “Let’s get this up and rocking and rolling, then maybe address developments,” suggested Mace.
Matt agreed. “Once this is up and going, we’ll see where we have additional challenges,” he said. “If we don’t get the process going, we’re going to compound it.”
In other business, the board agreed to seek logo submissions that incorporate the themes of unity and water. The logo would then be professionally tweaked for use on water board communications and signage.
Board member Georgia Smies suggested spreading the word to schools across the reservation and via social media, with submissions in a digital format to be directed to the board’s communication director Rob McDonald, Robert.McDonald@cskt.org.
She also wanted to offer an incentive, perhaps a $100 gift card, along with recognition for the winning submission. “I’d like us to get more ideas than less,” she said.
At a meeting in March, the board agreed to pursue a lease for the former Masonic Temple building on Main Street in Ronan for the future Office of the Engineer. The large space is already wired to satisfy electronic and technology demands, and the owner has agreed to install an entrance/exit ramp to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
The board plans to meet again from 2 to 4 p.m. on April 28 and review progress on creating an interim process for domestic use applications. Links to upcoming meetings are posted at both the DNRC and CSKT websites.
