CSKT water compact is an over-reach

I was a member of the House Judiciary Committee that heard the bill that would have implemented the current Confederated Salish and Kootanai Tribes water compact. The bill did not make it out of committee and did not receive enough votes from the full House membership to bring it to the House floor for more debate. This compact did not pass because it was a massive over-reach by CSKT and the Montana Reserved Water Right Commission that negotiated with the tribes for the state of Montana.  

There are seven Indian reservations in Montana. Six of them have water compacts that have been ratified by the legislature. Those six compacts have a combined water allotment of 2.55 million acre feet. The CSKT compact asked for almost 50 million acre feet.

Why does the CSKT need that much water? Ninety percent of the agricultural land within the boundary of the Flathead Reservation is non-reservation land that is owned by mostly non-tribal people. The tribes owns 65 percent of the land inside the boundaries, and most of that land is in the Mission Mountains. So the main question is why does CSKT need 50 million acre feet of water?

The CSKT compact would grant the tribes off-reservation water rights. None of the other compacts grant off-reservation rights to the tribes. Why does the CSKT need off-reservation water rights?  

The CSKT compact establishes a unitary management ordinance that will regulate all water rights inside the boundary of the reservation. No other tribal compact has such an agreement, and other reservations do not have as large a non-Indian population and private land ownership as does the Flathead Reservation.

Why does the tribe want to manage the water rights? Montana has a water court that deals with water rights. There is no need for a new management of water rights in the Flathead Indian Reservation, where much of the irrigated land is not tribal land. Montana’s Constitution is clear that the state’s water is for everyone, not just a few, and that the state has the authority to regulate water rights. That responsibility should not be given away.

The CSKT compact gives $55 million from the state to the tribes for the irrigation project. Why do the tribes need that much money? There is annual money from Kerr Dam revenue that is designated for the irrigation project. Isn’t that money enough to maintain the irrigation project?  

CSKT has sued in federal court for ownership of all of the water in, over and running through the reservation. In this lawsuit, CSKT has named some landowners. This action has required those landowners to retain lawyers to defend themselves. So litigation has already started outside legislative action on the CSKT compact.  

If the CSKT compact is ratified in its present form, there are sure to be many suits brought by landowners for takings by the state. When the tribe has control of the water rights and reduces the amount of water available for farming, the value of the land will go down and the uncertainty of water availability will negatively affect agricultural production.

Fifty legislators have asked the Water Policy Interim Committee to answer numerous questions regarding the CSKT compact so they can better understand the effect of the compact. The tribes and the Montana Reserved Water Right Commission have spent time since the last legislative session defending the present compact instead of working to make the compact reasonable for all Montanans.

I’m sure that if CSKT brought a water agreement to the next legislature that showed their needs for water and determined how much would be needed for those purposes, it would be approved like the other six compacts. The tribes have a right to the water they need just like every other citizen.

Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, represents Montana House District 5.