Consider three Compact issues
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Editor,
With all the drama surrounding the Mission and Jocko Irrigations Districts withdrawing and thus destroying the Flathead Joint Board of Control (FJBC), irrigators should not be distracted from seriously thinking about the basic issues of the Compact/Water Use Agreement (WUA). None of the Compact opponents have ever denied that the CSKT has a Federal Reserved water right, but they must quantify it.
The fundamental issues of the Compact/WUA are the giving up of irrigators' water right claim to the CSKT, the inadequate quantity of water delivery proposed in the agreement that is less than irrigator’s historic usage, and the removal of fee land irrigators from State water administration. No federal reserved water compact “negotiated” by the State Compact Commission has placed irrigators under non-State water administration.
The proponents of the compact have never debated these three issues. They cite the fear of huge out-of-pocket litigation costs which in reality are borne by the State, the US and the CSKT and avoid the discussion of these major issues. The FJBC has delineated these issues in a September letter to the CSKT in the hopes of entering discussions to explain our concerns and have not even received the courtesy of a response. Instead the CSKT has seen fit to threaten tribal land lease holders, both Tribal and non-Tribal, with the loss of their leases if they oppose the proposed Compact/WUA and in some case have made good on this threat.
As a fee land project irrigator, I am not willing to give up my claim to irrigation water, I am unwilling to settle for less than my historic deliveries of water, and I refuse to be treated differently than the rest of my fellow citizens of the State of Montana with regards to water administration on fee land. I would urge all those irrigators sitting on the fence regarding the Compact/WUA to seriously consider where they stand. This Compact has all ready been characterized as an unconstitutional taking of property rights by a District Court Judge. Irrigators, do not be distracted from considering these three issues.
Jerry Laskody
St. Ignatius
