CME decides on concrete pipe for S Canal
Berl Tiskus
Sonny Dumontier, Cooperative Management Entity of the Flathead Joint Board of Control board member, looks over handouts before the board meeting begins.
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PABLO — The Cooperative Management Entity for the Flathead Irrigation District met at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal complex on June 12.
In reorganizing the board, CSKT Council member Leonard Gray was chosen as chair with Ted Hein as vice chair.
The board heard a report from hydrologist Pete Plant. The snowpack conditions for Mission Valley sit at 63 percent of regular, the Jocko Valley’s is 51 percent of regular, and Camas has the “big goose egg,” Plant said. Whatever water is in storage over there is what there will be.
In other business, Gordon Wind, project manager for the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, brought up the Upper S Canal project, a part of the FIIP, and a $100,000 grant. He wanted commissioners to discuss whether to use a geo membrane liner or concrete pipe to put in the canal.
The pipeline cost more per foot — $121 a foot versus $87 a foot for the Huesker geo membrane liner. However, Wind said animals, elk, deer and livestock were hard on the liner and with sharp rock in the canal there was potential for punctures without hauling in extra material to pad the rock. A motion to use pipe instead of Huesker lining carried.
Wind also provided Bureau of Indian Affairs operating guidelines, FIIP operating guidelines and policies, biological assessments, about 1,000 pages, for new CME members Ted Hein and Ray Swenson.
