Project manager, irrigation commissioners address delivery concerns
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FLATHEAD RESERVATION – Flathead Indian Irrigation Project Manager Gordon Wind said last week that water delivery to irrigators is expected to go on as normal this summer, despite recent concerns voiced by a Mission Irrigation District commissioner.
“We’re operating no differently than we have historically,” Wind said in an interview. “The snowpack has yet to produce water at this point … We have in-stream flows to meet and we’re barely meeting those in-stream flows at this point. I expect though, within the next few days, within a week or so, runoff will pick up because of the warmer temperatures.”
As the flows pick up the project will divert water and store it for summer usage. This year’s snowpack was more than ample to meet needs, according to Wind.
“We don’t set a date to start taking water,” Wind said. “We actually start collecting water once the stream flows start to produce a steady reliable supply that we can divert.”
Wind said the ongoing controversy about the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Rights Compact has spawned much criticism from “arm chair experts” about the project’s management, but not all of the information being circulated is accurate.
Former project employee Tim Orr told irrigators in an April 28 press conference that’s he’s familiar with the project, and believes it has been mismanaged since the Bureau of Indian Affairs assumed control last year, after an agreement for cooperative management between three local irrigation districts fell apart.
Orr showed a series of photos taken of water flowing in multiple parts of the project where he believed storage efforts should already be underway. The water that has flowed past could have powered a couple hundred wheel-lines this summer, Orr said.
“We’d just like to know when they are going to start pulling some water,” Orr said. “It’s been a month now they could have been pulling water … If we run into a dry May and there’s no water in the reservoir, there’s no excuse for it … All this early runoff, all this snow we’ve had, went right down the river.”
Mission Irrigation District Jerry Laskody worried about the impact of the project’s management later in the summer.
“We only get one chance at storing water,” Laskody said. “Once it flows past you can’t bring it back, and they aren’t storing water yet. We’re going to pay for that in August and September.”
Wind said he doesn’t predict any delivery problems this summer.
“We’re in good shape,” Wind said.
