Water management board authorizes new wells, answers questions
Kristi Niemeyer
Chair Clayton Matt, board members Georgia Smies, Ken Pitt and Roger Noble authorized 72 of 99 domestic well applications during a June meeting of the Flathead Reservation Water Management Board at the office in Ronan.
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RONAN — The Flathead Reservation Water Management Board is making headway through a stack of domestic well applications, thanks to an interim application process developed this spring.
The five-member board meets regularly at the Office of the Engineer, located in the former Masonic Lodge in Ronan, or via Zoom.
The interim applications that are now available are required for those planning to drill wells or develop springs for domestic allowances. A second form, which became available July 1, is for those who drilled wells between Sept. 17 (the date the water compact between tribal, state and federal governments became effective) and June 1, and must be submitted to the water board by Sept. 29. Currently, the forms are available at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation website (dnrc.mt.gov/divisions/water/water-compact-implementation-program/confederated-salish-and-kootenai-tribes-compact/interim-process-for-certain-water-rights) or from the office, 400 Main St. SW in Ronan.
As of last Thursday, 99 applications had been received since the June 1 opening date and the board has voted to authorize 72 of those. At the meeting July 21, the Compact Implementation Team plans to present at least 16 more applications for board approval.
The board, at the recommendation of its human resources subcommittee, has winnowed five applications for water engineer to three, and plans to interview those candidates before Aug. 1 according to spokesman Rob McDonald. The board is now advertising for a compliance tech/administrative assistant. When fully staffed, the office will also include a water resource specialist.
The board also plans to select a logo from among a dozen designs submitted by the public (submissions may be viewed on the DNRC website). The next step is to build a website that will provide more direct access to forms and meeting info. Zoom links to future meetings, as well as recordings of previous meetings, are currently available at the DNRC and CSKT websites.
Yet, even with substantial progress since the board first convened in January, some reservation residents are stuck in administrative limbo, with issues neither the compact board nor the DNRC are currently able to resolve.
At a meeting June 30, the board heard from Tom Stockton and Duane Smith, co-trustees charged with settling Donna Smith’s revocable trust. When the family purchased the property in 1999, they understood it to have water rights dating back to 1977. But when they sought a property-line adjustment from the Department of Environmental Quality nine months ago, they discovered that the DNRC does not consider the property to have a valid water right for domestic use, since the well was only used to water stock until a house was built in 2000.
“We had water rights for 50-some years and now they say we don’t have them,” Stockton told the board.
“It was a simple boundary-line adjustment that turned into a nightmare,” added Duane Smith. “We wouldn’t have bought the place in 2000 if we didn’t think we had a water right.”
The family has a contract to sell the property to a couple who sold their house in California and moved to Montana expecting to complete the transaction and move in.
“Now, they have nothing to live in,” Smith said. “Is there just a variance or anything you can give to DEQ to approve a boundary-line adjustment?”
“We’re desperate,” he added.
While board members were sympathetic, they had no easy answers to the conundrum. Roger Noble told Smith he had sat in on several meetings between the DNRC and DEQ about similar issues, but noted, “this is a state-based water right and short of us getting the whole Office of the Engineer up and running … the fastest way we can expedite approval is for you to apply to get a new well-drilling permit, then we can process that and move forward. That’s the only process we can do at this time.”
Smith, who repeatedly said he blamed the DNRC and not the water compact board or implementation team for the family’s predicament, pointed out that drilling a well would probably cost around $35,000, “and there’s no guarantee we’ll get water.”
Noble asked the implementation team whether there were forms in the works for those who did not file for preexisting water uses prior to the March 16 deadline established by the compact.
Tribal attorney Melissa Schlichting told the board that the implementation team has heard from other people who have preexisting uses and missed the filing deadline. “Our instruction has been to go ahead and file an interim form, but those forms will be held until the Office of the Engineer is fully functional.”
Hydrologist Ethan Mace added that six of these applications related to preexisting use had been filed, and he was aware of 10 more pending. The technical team is working on developing an interim process for those types of applications, he told the board, “but due to our other responsibilities, it’s something we haven’t been able to turn to.”
Smith encouraged the board to find a solution sooner instead of later. “We all are new at this,” he said. “Somehow somebody has to take the bull by the horn – we’re doing it for the other people who are in the same situation.”
The board meets again in person from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21, at the office in Ronan. A Zoom link is available. For more information, email contact@frwmb.org or call 406-201-2532.
