Who pays in general stream adjudication?
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Editor,
Montana has had a general stream adjudication (litigation) under way in the state since 1979, establishing the Montana Water Court to hear all claims. Many river basins have already been adjudicated — in other words, all of the water rights have been filed with and approved by the court.
Since 1979, the State of Montana has represented its citizens — and individual water rights — before the Montana Water Court. The state’s department of natural resources and conservation has been the technical agency responsible for field-verifying the individual water claims. This means that the costs of adjudication for individual Montanans has been borne by the State of Montana, not individual water users.
Where federal lands are involved, the federal government has represented those claims. Sometimes individual tribes have hired their own attorneys and engineers to supplement the work of the federal government. If state claims are involved, the state has represented its individual water users as described above.
Supporters of the FIIP water use agreement would like to have everyone believe that the failure of this agreement will result in everyone having to hire their own lawyer to defend their water rights. They also incorrectly assume that individual irrigators will have to pay “per acre” costs to “litigate.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. In Montana’s general stream adjudication, the State of Montana will do the heavy lifting of the legal and technical costs. For those water users on the federal irrigation project, the federal government will incur the costs. If you don’t like either representation, you can hire your own attorney. It is time to stop the “threat of litigation” to scare people into accepting a bad water agreement. Check the facts for yourself at the Montana Water Court website: http://courts.mt.gov/water/default.mcpx.
Marsha Straus
Ronan
