It's good to see the actions of our elected officials on crucial area issues
Letter to the Editor,
It’s a sad day when one needs to thank their elected officials for doing their jobs, but seeing how some blow off public meetings so often, I want to thank those who respect the voter enough to show up.
My thanks go out to Sen. Chas Vincent, Reps. Jerry Bennett and Mike Cuffe as well as Commissioner Tony Berget for coming out to the proposed water rights compact meeting. I don’t know who is advising Commissioner Ron Downey about not showing up to such meetings, but whoever it is, they aren’t doing him any favors.
Marianne Roose and Mike Cole, who she campaigned so hard for, couldn’t be bothered to show up. I guess that means they have no questions about the water rights compact and will rubber-stamp whatever Helena tells them to. How progressive of them. I also wish to thank Steve Curtiss for coming out and standing up for our water rights. Lincoln County really messed up by not voting him in as commissioner.
Last Monday’s meeting was one we all should be concerned about. Once again, we had a group come to town and tell us they were putting before the Legislature, then eventually Congress, more regulations on our future. Water is the life blood of any community. Giving away its use for future growth in Lincoln County should bring out everyone.
I saw little concern for us as Jay Weiner, staff attorney for the Compact Commission, openly laughed at questions and sarcastically suggested we couldn’t afford the years or money to fight this so take what they are giving us. Not a good selling point or salesman, if you ask me.
If you feel uncertain or uncomfortable about this, you aren’t alone. Despite what was told to us Monday night, all are not happy with this compact. The compact has provisions allowing the tribes to lease water for new consumptive uses. On top of Montana paying a settlement of about $55 million to the tribes, the federal government will also pay the tribes a sum that still hasn’t been determined. So, with our tax dollars paying them through the state and federal governments, why should we pay more if Troy and Libby had future economic growth? Future irrigation and new consumptive uses are at stake here.
At past meetings in surrounding counties others pointed out this and other issues with the compact. As Weiner stated in one of those meetings, “Nothing in this settlement allows the tribes to start charging water users for their water,” he said. “It’s to recognize and quantify the tribes’ legal water rights, to get everyone’s water rights decreed...and it does it in a way that protects existing water users, even though those water users are junior to the tribes.” Note the key words, “existing water users.”
Weiner also stated, “The only area where the compact has potential off-reservation impacts, is that the tribes retain their right to make call against 94 irrigation water rights off the main stem of the Flathead River and the north, south and middle forks of the Flathead.”
But those rights are only “theoretically subject to call,” Weiner emphasized. He didn’t say those rights couldn’t or legally wouldn’t be called. Gotta love lawyers.
Rep. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell said, “The tribe would have the only reserved water rights, and they would have the ability to market that water to people who need it,” he added that the state doesn’t even have the ability.
St. Ignatius-area resident Terry Backs stated, “We believe the state conceded water rights before they even sat at the table. We don’t believe it’s fair and equitable.”
As for us back here in Lincoln County, I came away with a very big, yet unanswered question. I never heard what would happen to us if Libby Dam was to disappear. It was alluded that things would be different for us if we didn’t have Libby Dam, but not to worry, for that wouldn’t happen.
In this day and age of ecology first ideals, who can guaranty that endangered species won’t override Libby Dam’s purpose?
In the last 50 years about 1,000 dams across the country have been taken down. Numbers provided by American Rivers suggest the 1999 removal of Maine’s Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River set the stage for more than 430 other such projects across the country in the past decade – more than three times the 130 taken down between 1990 and 1998.
Many of the dams have come up for federal relicensing, contributing to the removal trend. Conservationists and sporting groups encourage the removals, pointing to growing evidence of environmental harm caused by dams and questioning the safety of the impoundments, especially older ones.
So where will that leave us? Maybe Commissioner Roose or her boy Cole can tell us.
— D.A. Shkursky
Libby