Board putting own interests first
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Editor,
It is becoming apparent that the majority members of the Flathead Joint Board of Control are putting their own interests ahead of what is best for the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. One example is the Dutton Report. As I understand, this report was ordered privately and in secret by four members of the board. They then offered to sell the report to the Joint Board of Control, which the majority agreed to. However, was it really theirs to sell? Instead, as reported at the April 22 meeting, the FJBC paid Mr. Dutton directly. Since the four members had not paid for it, they never owned the report and therefore had nothing to sell.
I have not seen the actual report. I have only read Mr. Dutton’s article in the April 10th Missoulian. There he reports that local irrigators applied up to 18 inches of irrigation water for alfalfa, up to 20 inches for mixed hay crops and up to 24 inches for potatoes. To get a better understanding, read the review of Mr. Dutton’s report by Ethan Mace, Surface Water Hydrologist, Montana DNRC: “An accurate summary of the data collected by Mr. Dutton as part of his 1994 report should acknowledge that seventy six percent of his field measurements demonstrated annual applications of less than 12 inches, and only 16 measurements from nine individuals demonstrate annual irrigation application in excess of 15 inches — just 12 percent of all measurements collected.” Also noted is that the average Dutton field measurements were 8.8 inches. It appears to me Mr. Dutton’s report is intended to be misleading by only reporting the “up to” amounts.
On April 22 we hear that eight of the 12 members of the FJBC filed suit against the Legislature, the Governor and the Attorney General to challenge the compact. Again, they are wasting our money on a suit that has no merit. If they want to fight it, let them do it with their own funds, like those who support the compact have done.
Curt Rosman
Charlo
