Water rights negotiations progress
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Federal Negotiator Duane Mecham reported at the June 29 Water Rights Compact Commission negotiating session that he and colleague David Red Horse met with the working group on Indian water settlements in Washington, D.C. Mecham and Red Horse got the go-ahead from this group on three critical issues.
“Our team,” Mecham said, “identified three threshold issues for Letty (chair of the working group) and her staff.”
These three issues were:
• unitary administration approach
• a proposal from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes that the federal irrigation project water rights should be held by the tribes with existing water right users provided for
• negotiations towards getting a block of water from Hungry Horse Reservoir
Unitary administration is a new concept for Indian Water Rights and means that two tribal appointees, two state appointees, a non-voting member and another person selected by the four voting members will administer the water rights compact commission on the Flathead Reservation.
The Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission was created by the Montana legislature in 1979 to conclude compacts for the equitable division and apportionment of waters between the State and its people and the several Indian Tribes claiming reserved water rights within the state (MCA 85-2-701), and between the State and its people and the federal government, according to the website.
The CSK Tribes, the state of Montana and the federal government have been negotiating.
In other business WRCC Attorney Jay Weiner presented draft administrative ordinance 1-1-107 dealing with stock water allowances for the CSKT and federal negotiating teams to look over.
Types of stock water allowances are stock water wells that source from either groundwater or developing springs, stock water pits that source from groundwater seepage or a non-perennial stream, or stock water tanks from non-perennial or perennial streams. This information will soon be available on the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation website at www.dnrc.mt.gov/rwrcc.
Weiner also recapped information on domestic allowances for individual wells, shared wells and development wells presented on April 27. This information also is available on the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation website.
New legislative members of the State of Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission negotiating team Dick Barrett, D-HD 93, Missoula, Dan Salomon, R-HD 12, Ronan, Debbie Barrett, R-SD 46, Missoula, and Carol Williams, D-SD 46, Missoula, attended their first water rights negotiation session on June 29 at the KwaTaqNuk Resort.
The next meeting of the WRCC will be held Aug. 31 at the KwaTaqNuk Resort.
