Support compact, show up
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Editor,
It is becoming painfully clear that those who oppose the CSKT compact are pulling out all the stops to get it killed. They have hired an out-of-state law firm and created an across-the-state campaign to kill it. They show up at hearings and speak loudly in favor of litigation over negotiation.
Those in favor of the compact continue to sit home and hope it will all go away and that the compact, at the end of the day, will prevail.
While I would like to believe that, I know that the world is run by those who show up. The next meetings and the next legislative session are fast approaching and the time to stay in the background is over.
Please get out to the next negotiating sessions, make time for the last Water Policy Interim Committee meeting in Helena and get ready to go to Helena during the legislative session to testify in favor of the compact.
Why? Because the CSKT compact protects your water rights.
Over 3,000 wells on the reservation have no legal water right. The irrigation district faces higher in-stream flows for fish and higher in-stream flows for the endangered bull trout. No non-tribal member on the reservation has a right senior to the tribes.
Litigation is not flexible or predictable. Litigating the CSKT water rights will be long, divisive and expensive. The benefits and security achieved through negotiation will be gone. We will not end up with a better deal.
Go to montanawaterstewards.com for upcoming meeting schedules or call me at (406) 676-4297.
Take a day off work if you have to and attend a negotiating session or a legislative hearing. It is that important.
Susan Lake
Ronan
