Water belongs to landowners

Water Compacts in Montana are a re-designation of very valuable water rights or appropriations via Congress and the President. We have been fooled by some of our elected officials into believing we do not own water right, appropriated or claimed on file at your nearest county court house.

This statement is false.

The State reaffirmed, these early day’s laws in 1972 by reaffirming our State Constitution. The United States owned all waters in the west via many treaties or purchases from foreign governments. The land and water that was not filed on prior to the Homestead Act was set aside and sold via contracts with the U.S. Government.

The problem our governments are having today is dealing with the multiple water use statements of,  “for power generation along with other purposes” which were added to many of our water certificates. Money was very scarce in the early days. The power companies were formed, by large corporations, and promised to build dams in return for a 50-year lease of all water rights in the state of Montana under the 1920 Power Act.

These contracts and franchises becoming very lucrative and valuable as our country’s population grew and the projects were paid off. Congress forgot their contracts with the landowners, splitting that ‘payback income’ between the Secretary of Interior, state, counties and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Just last Monday, in Helena MT, I found the water rights for the Flathead Irrigation and Power Project that were not properly filed in the DNRC by the BIA, who were running the Irrigation and Power Project, in 1983 as required by Montana Legislative requirements following the 1973 State Water Act. The BIA must have overlooked filing, as they had been too busy helping spend funds that were not theirs. (Net Power Revenues).

Gene Erb

St. Ignatius