Commissioner clarifies position on water compact

Please understand, water is the singularly most elemental and critical need to all life, including yours, your children and all your future generations. Given the importance, we must ask ourselves: Do we have even a minimal understanding of why this impending Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes Water Compact thingy is so important? Surprisingly, the majority of our citizens, after survey, seemingly do not have an understanding.

With so many not truly understanding the compact, who do we depend upon for the truthful facts? Sadly, as with many issues, we have extremist viewpoints which become sensationalistic attempts that sway us to what is important to them.

However, we cannot allow peripheral forces of bias, apathy, ignorance, conspiracy theories, egotistical behavior and/or racism to confuse us, nor deflect us from focusing on the currently critical issue of our water. True, while some of the more external issues may be distantly relevant, they are another challenge for another time.

On Jan. 3, I and Commissioner Gary Krueger signed a letter to members of the Water Policy Interim Committee in the Montana State Legislative Environmental Policy Office. The assumed detail and intent of that letter have been brandished about by one extreme or another, all claiming the letter either endangered or supported their opposed positions. I realized my signing the letter would generate widespread attention and hopefully encourage more learned interest.

Frankly, the text and verbiage of the letter is very clear. Interestingly, most responders hadn’t actually read the actual letter. Regrettably, the letter became fodder for those who simply paint the issues black or white based upon their more extreme perspectives.

The letter stated specifically that the commissioners “wish to affirm support for a compact process.” Nowhere in the letter is there mention of a specific compact, as written.

It has been demanded of me that I refute the Water Compact “as written.” But to strike the entire compact as written would be tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

There is compact terminology based on many years of work and debate from all parties that warrant our consideration. The letter also stated that the compact “may” or “can” achieve some results beneficial to all; and further stated, “We recognize that negotiated agreements can only reach a successful conclusion if all the negotiating parties are prepared to make concessions.”

I stand by that, but while I approve of the contract process in general, I cannot support the compact as it is presently written, in part because it is too complex, too long, and leaves too many unanswered questions for all of “we the people” to understand, regarding its implementation in the near term and its consequences for the long term.

Our mandated water negotiation cannot be successfully completed for all Montanans when confounded by extremist behavior. We all must focus on the currently relevant matter (water) through a focused question and answer period that fully explains the CSKT Water Compact to all our citizens’ level of understanding. Only through full understanding can we dare to accept a compact affecting all of us Montanans.

Considering the life’s blood of our water, let us review some real facts we need to deal with:

• In 1979, the state of Montana mandated negotiation of water compacts (Mont. Code Ann. 85-2-701).

• Six tribal resolutions for water rights claims have been resolved (Mont. Code Ann. 85-20-201). Ours remains unresolved.

• We have yet to complete an all-around agreeable water compact affecting all of us living in Northwest Montana, yet the compact is to be decided upon by our state legislature in 2015.

We do need and are entitled to have all CSKT Water Compact questions answered. A few focus questions we might ask are: Who makes the water use decisions? How and for whom is the water measured? Who and what is the Unitary Management Ordinance? Does the federal government control the water rights vs. Montanans? What are off-the-reservation water rights? Is this a legal document that can never be amended? Will citizens ever have to pay for our glass of water? To whom and for specifically what is the $55 million our governor set aside in our state budget? When will we receive findings of the Water Policy Interim Committee? What are the best- and worst-case scenarios?

Our challenge is asking the right questions. It is my hope that those in the know will provide questions with answers for all of us, at all our levels of understanding. I implore you to get verifiable facts, have open discussions about the facts and eventually address the concerns of all citizens of Northwest Montana.

Please contact your local, state and federal representatives and media to provide understandable answers to your water questions — now.

Cal Scott, R-Columbia Falls, is a Flathead County commissioner, representing the north Flathead Valley.