Without compact, water costs will double
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Editor,
Want to know the cost of your water if the water use agreement fails?
Currently, your water costs $26 per acre. With the proposed Flathead Irrigation Project Agreement and the Flathead Compact you will lose the low-cost block of power, with the current average cost of pumping that increases costs by $2 per acre. Additional costs in legal fees to protect water rights could be about $14 per acre. In order to make up water lost to meet minimum enforceable in-stream flow requirements through additional pumping, add another $3 per acre. If you were to install your own flow measurement devices (which you may have to do anyway if in litigation) add $6 per acre. Lastly, the hidden cost of not complying with the Endangered Species Act to protect bull trout would be additional $10 per acre. Add all this up, and you’re looking at $61 per acre per year for water in five years if the compact does not pass. This is more than double what you pay now.
Not only does the stability of having enough water (up to 2 acre feet) every year to farm and ranch allow development projects to proceed; but, it will be affordable for our current needs, the needs of our children, and our children’s children. If your property requires more than 2 acre feet, additional water is available for purchase. Other gains from the project include a $300,000 per year pumping fund, $4 million for measurement devices and installation, $4 million for an on-farm efficiency cost share fund, $4 million for a stock water cost share fund, $100,000 per year in net power revenues, and $100-plus million for rehabilitation of project irrigation facilities. Please consider the real cost of what is on the table here, and set aside any personal opinions of your neighbors in the valley.
Paul Wadsworth
St. Ignatius
