Water compact proponents try to get ahead of issue at Legislature

By DAVID REESE

Lake County Leader

Susan Lake slid open the door to the potato cellar and the dank, musty smell of earth poured out.

Thousands of potatoes were piled in the cavernous storage barn at Lake’s farm in Pablo, where they will wait out the winter to be graded and sold for seed potatoes this spring. It was water that got the potatoes to this point, and it’s water that’s going to help Lake and her family continue their farming tradition in the Mission Valley. That’s why she’s a supporter of the negotiated compact between the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the state of Montana. The compact is a negotiated settlement that addresses the tribes’ water rights claims on the Flathead Indian Reservation and across 11 western Montana counties. The Legislature has not approved the compact, but if it does not approve it this session, the tribes have said they will pursue their water rights claims in state-adjudicated water court.

Lake said she needs certainty of a water supply and the compact provides it.

The compact issue has developed into a rift between farmers like Lake and others on the reservation. But she says the compact proponents are far behind the curve in getting their word out about the positive impacts of the compact; the opponents put their message out early, and they put it out strong, Lake said.

Now, Lake and many of the other top 100 irrigators on the Flathead Indian Reservation are playing catchup.

The opposition got an early start on us, and we’re doing the best we can.”

Potatoes can be an expensive, intricate crop to plant. That’s why Lake said without a guarantee of a water source, their farm may have to make some hard decisions. “We won’t plant potatoes if we don’t know what we’re getting at the end of the season,” she said.

Lake has been a proponent of the negotiated water rights settlement between the tribes and the state. She displayed a booth at the Lake County Agriculture Expo in Ronan. Lake is not a loud, outspoken advocate for the compact. The tall, Montana farm girl takes a measured approach when discussing the issue. She doesn’t seem to get rattled by much, but after a life of raising cattle, potatoes and children, nothing seems to faze her.

She hopes the compact proponents can regain some momentum at the Legislature, now that lawmakers are actually reviewing the bill in committee. She’s watched how past legislators kicked the compact can down the road. The 2013 Legislature did not pass a bill that would approve the compact between the state and the tribes. This year’s Legislature is the last chance to approve a compact. This year, legislators are more informed on the issue, but she said, “They still think it’s too complex and they don’t understand it. What we have now is a better agreement than what we had two years ago.”

Lake can also put the compact in historic perspective. “Ten to 20 years I remember thinking the states are going to give our water away,” she said.

Lake knows she and other proponents are up against a public-relations and advertising machine. “They’re organized, they have funding, and they have passion,” she said.

Flathead County and Sanders County commissioners have all come out against the compact.

Recently Lake was out feeding her small herd of cattle near Pablo. Trudging through the wet snow she described how farmers in the Klamath Valley in Oregon went to court instead of negotiating a compact — and they lost. “They didn’t want to negotiate so in June they got their water cut off,” she said. The Klamath ranchers have now had to take their emotions out of it and make a business decision.

“Those ranchers and farmers are now hoping to negotiate a compact because they don’t have any water. I see that happening here on the reservation.”

Once the issue gets to the federal level —if it does — “neither us nor the tribes will have much say in it then,” Lake said. The federal government, she said, will be more concerned with in-stream flows to support endangered species like bull trout.

Lake has seen how the issue has polarized the community. While the outspoken critics of the compact are vociferous about their stance, the proponents have had to quietly voice their opinions. “We get demonized and accused of the tribes’ buying us irrigation pivots,” she said. “It’s not a good deal for the neighborhood to be in a legal fight with the tribes.”

In 1996 the tribes sued to stop any new water permits until a compact could be negotiated. Since then, there are about 3,000 wells on the reservation that would end up in adjudication because the tribe does not see them as being legal, Lake said. “The compact looked at all the problems and came up with a solution,” Lake said. “The opposition offers us nothing, but they’re saying litigation is no big deal.”

Lake irrigates about 1,000 acres. The largest ranch within the reservation boundaries is about 4,000 acres. Her husband’s cousins have the second-largest ranch on the reservation. They all support the water compact. The Flathead Joint Board of Control, a coalition of irrigators around Lake County, have stood firmly against the compact, but Lake said they don’t represent the majority of the irrigated acreage. “The major irrigators support the compact,” Lake said. “A lot of the vocal opponents don’t have a horse in the race.”

The compact provides for 90,000 acre feet of water from Hungry Horse Reservoir to be used in Montana. Of that water, the state gets 11,000 acre feet at a set price, and another 20,000 acre feet that can be used outside of the Flathead Valley. “That’s a beautiful amount of water to be used in the state,” Lake said. “Otherwise there’s no guarantee of that. I would like the majority of legislators to see it’s a good idea for Montana.”

She wonders how much more the tribes will offer in negotiations. “The tribes have been great neighbors,” she said. “They’ve brought a lot of solutions to the process. I don’t know if you can ask for more than that.”

But, getting the information to the legislators at this point in the Legislature might be too late.

 “I feel like we have more support than we did last session, I just hope it’s enough,” Lake said. “My facts mean nothing when I have to go up against what they say is God and country, and constitutional rights.”