BIA to manage irrigation project

PABLO — After nearly four years of governance by a cooperative management entity (CME), the Bureau of Indian Affairs will resume the operation and management of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (FIIP) in the coming weeks.

The BIA is yet to set a date for its assumption of the operation and management, but Flathead Agency Superintendent Bud Moran said he’s hoping for late April.

“They’re just shuffling papers trying to find a date everyone agrees to,” Moran said, referring to the BIA’s Northwest Regional Office in Portland, Ore., the local BIA officials and the FIIP.

Meanwhile, the FIIP itself has been running the best it can through the transition, Project Manager Gordon Wind said.

“We have essentially operated in the same manner that the CME operations did until BIA receives full management authority,” Wind said.

A March 21 letter from Moran to water users outlined the history of the irrigation project and the reasoning behind the dissolution of the CME, which was created as a cooperative between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Flathead Joint Board of Control in 2010.

“The CME managed the project from 2010 through early 2013. Beginning in May 2013, however, circumstances arose that brought the continued viability of the CME into question,” Moran wrote in the letter, referring to disagreements over the proposed water compact.

Wind said the dissolution of the CME has created challenges, but it’s nothing the FIIP cannot handle.

“We’re going through the bumps of a transition, but we are cooperating, and we’re doing the best we can to make it as smooth as possible,” Wind said. “We will do our best to manage the water, deliver the water and perform the maintenance under the BIA structure.”