Open letter from Camas Irrigation District
TO: OPEN LETTER TO MONTANA LEGISLATORS
FROM: CAMAS IRRIGATION DISTRICT
DATE: MARCH 6th, 2015
It could be said that a classic example of life in Montana is reflected in the remote high plains of Sanders County, at Hot Springs, Lone Pine and other neighboring towns. These are small communities with big-hearted, sturdy hard working folks that keep life sustaining lands productive, and take good care of each other—something for which Montana people are well known. The Camas Irrigation District is the heart of life-giving water for this otherwise quite isolated area. The Camas Irrigation District unanimously and vigorously opposes the Proposed CSKT Water Compact for the following reasons:
1. Economic Harm. Immediate economic and land use harm that will fall upon land within the Camas Irrigation District.
2. Environmental Damage. For decades available irrigation has converted a dry, arid land to productive cattle, ranchers and farm activities; loss of irrigation is loss of land productivity which immediately impacts the economy of local towns and communities.
3. Montana State Constitutional Protections. The Proposed Compact removes the Article IX Protections over Montana’s “environmental life support system” (water) and transfers management to a state and federal jurisdiction; it concurrently removes the voice of Montana landowners made vulnerable to governments having no duty or interest in their property, its use or values.
4. Low-Yielding, Uncertain Water Supply. As reported in an HCM Engineering Report for the Flathead Irrigation District, “the Camas Division of the Flathead Irrigation District contains roughly 14,000 irrigated acres. This land is served by four storage reservoirs that are supplied by low-yielding watersheds, including areas outside the Flathead Indian Reservation, and from two inter-basin water diversions through the Alder and McGinnis ditches. The watersheds are of relatively low elevation resulting in inconsistent annual water supplies.”* It is the uncertainty of reliance upon low-yielding watershed runoffs, and redirection of waters from storage facilities such as Hubbart and Lower Dry Fork reservoirs made subject to the Proposed CSKT Compact that place irrigators at great risk should the CSKT Compact supersede existing Montana water law and jurisdictional structures.
Is less than 1,500 Montana citizens a small enough number of people to arbitrarily destroy their livelihoods with a clear conscience? Are 351 irrigated large, undivided parcels containing nearly 14,000 acres served by the Camas Irrigation District just fine for removing from productivity that contributes to Sanders County economy? Is depopulation a goal of the Proposed CSKT Compact? Absence of available water within the Camas Irrigation District Area certainly portends such an outcome.
We urge Montana Legislators to not re-wind the land use clock in Western Montana, by transferring authority and jurisdiction of Montana’s waters to the management of governments promoting “aboriginal” and non-agricultural goals rather than the life-giving agricultural uses that have benefitted Montana for over a century.
FJBC Member at Large, Ted Hein