Water rights need adjudication
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Editor,
Since its reconstitution in 2014, the Flathead Joint Board of Control (FJBC) has worked to defeat the water Compact that was approved by the Montana legislature in 2015 and is now before the US Congress. But incredibly the FJBC has failed to prepare for the main alternative to the Compact - - Montana’s Water Court adjudication process.
The Compact has been studied and debated over the past five years but little is known about the adjudication process. This is not surprising given that the Water Court only started the process on this reservation in 2015 when it asked Montana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) to begin technical examinations of pre-1973 water right claims filed at the DNRC.
Shortly after my 2015 election to the FJBC, I proposed that the FJBC begin preparing for adjudication. I believe that the best way to inform irrigators about the advantages and disadvantages of adjudication relative to the Compact is to learn more about adjudication. But I found no FJBC interest.
In mid-2016 over 12,000 water right claimants, including the FJBC, received DNRC examination notes on their claims. Most quickly contacted the DNRC. But the FJBC dithered for over six months before even starting to develop a response to DNRC technical examinations.
More damning has been the failure of the FJBC to begin addressing long known legal questions concerning FJBC claims. One issue concerns the legal ownership of FJBC claims and the relationship between FJBC claims and claims by individual property owners.
Until more is learned about adjudication relative to the Compact, the FJBC should neither oppose nor support the Compact but provide more information about both. The Water Court also should provide information about the adjudication process on this reservation.
Dick Erb
Moiese
