Articles with the Tag: Water Compact

With a little less than a month left until the state legislature convenes, state, federal, and tribal officials met in Missoula Dec. 1 to hammer out last minute details of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact.  Officials said they were getting closer to agreeing on most elements of the ...

A state legislator is pushing for the federal government to answer questions about liens that have remained in place against properties using the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, even though the project’s construction debt was paid off almost a decade ago.  In a Dec. 1 negotiating session of...

RONAN – A re-evaluation of protected bull trout habitat, litigation, and ongoing negotiations of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact will have a significant impact on the operation of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project in the next year, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said Nov. 19...

ST. IGNATIUS – Attorney Bruce Fredrickson asked the Flathead Joint Board of Control on Nov. 12 to consider hiring a 2015 legislative lobbyist from the eastern part of the state who is currently unfamiliar with ongoing irrigation water disputes on the Flathead Reservation.  The lobbyist will foc...

ST. IGNATIUS – A Helena-based engineer told irrigation commissioners Nov. 12 that he believes he can provide critical insight into how the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project currently runs and could be improved, as the irrigation districts attempt to gain control of the project through lawsuit and obta...

POLSON – State, federal, and tribal leaders seemed to agree on a critical legal aspect of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact at a Nov. 5 negotiating session, although they were still slightly at odds over certain water management priorities.  The negotiating session is one of th...

ST. IGNATIUS – A meeting with the staff of Governor Steve Bullock was seen as a possible in-road to inserting three major concerns some irrigators want put into the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact, but irrigation commissioners who returned from the talk said no progress was made...

HELENA – After a half-year and hundreds of hours spent analyzing legal and technical aspects of the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact, proponents and opponents of the agreement devoted much of Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 airing the same talking points that have dominated the conversation ...

MISSOULA – Tribal officials said they will have to mull over changes proposed Oct. 27 by the State of Montana to a draft version of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact.  The tribal negotiating team’s initial reaction to the document was that state and tribal officials weren...

  Plans for shared water shortage in times of drought, irrigation canal improvements, and delivery of funds were debated by state, tribal, and federal officials Friday in a negotiating session for the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Water Compact.  Most of the elements of discussion...