Look below the waterline
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Editor,
Our current water war that has created a rift in paradise appears to be only the portion of the iceberg we can see floating above the surface. Those who attended school before 1980 were taught that only about 10 percent of an iceberg is visible above the waterline.
There are some, in the valley, who have donned a diving facemask with snorkel, or a pair of swimmers goggles, and are now looking below the waterline. What they are beginning to see will stun even the stout of heart.
One unanswered question that has been previously asked quietly, but has now been asked officially: “Where are the ‘Net Power Revenues’ from Kerr Dam that were assigned to the irrigators of the Flathead Irrigation Project by the US Congress?” They have gone missing for many years now. They were lease payments, in kind, for the use of irrigator water rights in Flathead Lake to generate the power for Kerr Dam.
These net power revenue funds were intended to be used for repayment of the construction costs to the US government of the power generation (the dam) and the irrigation project such as reservoirs, ditches, canals, etc.
So, where are they? They seem to have disappeared into thin air, while being channeled through the agencies of the Department of the Interior — I guess acting as middleman for some as yet unexplained reason.
It’s like the old shell game; which one of the walnut shells is the pea under now? You don’t suppose fraud, waste or abuse is involved, do you?
Michael Gale
Ronan
