Everyone will lose
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Editor,
The task given to the Montana Legislature created “Federal Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission” (FRWRCC), was to settle the federally reserved reservation water rights as defined by the 1908 Winter’s Decision by the US Supreme Court throughout Montana.
It seems that the FRWRCC is no better than any federal agency — it flexed its muscles and significantly grew beyond its original intended (and granted) body size; much like any couch potato whose diet consists purely of fast food and “Calories-R-Us,” when the commission finally sat down with the CSKT to iron out a compact for “Western Montana.” What happened to water rights to fulfill the purpose of some federally reserved land? How did that expand to nearly all of western Montana?
How is the Painted Rocks Reservoir part of the Flathead Reservation? How are rivers up near Eureka part of a reservation? How is the Milltown dam area part of the Flathead Reservation? How did all of this water become part of a federally reserved water right? By what stretch of the imagination did any water, outside of the Flathead Indian Reservation, become eligible to be gifted to the CSKT by our Governor, Steve Bullock, and the Attorney General, Tim Fox?
This cancer has spread beyond the limits of a FRWRCC negotiation. It is now threatening all of western Montana; all 350,000 residents will be affected and adversely impacted by this out of control cancer. Make no mistake — everyone in western Montana will lose, not just us on the Rez.
Michael Gale
Ronan
