Water Rights Negotiation session discusses Tribal unitary management proposal

By Alyssa Kelly

The meeting took a heated turn when Francis Auld of the Tribe’s Culture Preservation department expressed his disappointment in the negotiation process. “I haven’t seen anything being done or a realistic negotiation coming anytime soon,” he said. “I’ve heard what the lawyers have to say but there hasn’t been one step of pure progress.” Auld encouraged the public to write to the legislature to renew compact negotiations. (Alyssa Kelly photo)

PABLO - "The tribes have displayed over the past thousand of years that we are willing to fight for what is in our tribes' best interest," said Tribal Chairman James Steele Jr. "If that's in the negotiation process we will do that. If we need to go to court we will do that. It's an option to walk away from the table but we walk with consequences."

The Water Rights Negotiation session that took place on March 12 in the Joe McDonald Health and Physical Education Event Center. Among members of the local community, attendees included representatives of Montana's Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission, the Tribe's legal department, and the U.S. federal government.

The Water Rights Compact Commission led the session by acknowledging the urgency of the situation as the June 2009 deadline of agreement approaches. They wanted all parties involved to understand that the possibility of a deadline extension would be taken into consideration, granted all parties show solid progression towards reaching an agreement.

"We've invested a lot into this" Steele explained of the Tribes' interest in proposing an extension. "We would like the work to be done well. There are a lot of expenses in helping the tribes prove their understanding of the groundwater through technical work."

The U.S. Federal Government expressed their role in the negotiation process as assisting the Tribes' sovereign rights over their resources. The federal governments' involvement is limited and does not include being a part of the water administration.

The main topic of this particular session was the Tribe's Unitary Management Proposal. The state and Tribes have been working with a technical team on the proposal and offered a presentation on the research conducted for all parties.

Three main focal points of the research included:    
    • The current state geographical system data as far as claims, permits, ground water certificates, and lawsuits that haven't been processed. This will show what is available.    
    • Understanding the aquatic resources through canal seepage. Irrigation canals on the reservation lose water at a fairly elevated volume. Existing information suggests a large body of water was lost through the in and out flows of the system. The Tribes' data suggests this research is an important contribution the state could make.    
    • A hydrologic process that preserves the Tribes' treaty rights while working out the shared shortages. The Tribes hope to demonstrate what stream flows would look like with improved water management and improvements in the irrigation infrastructure. They hope to find more efficient uses for water closer to the reservation while working with the existing framework.

The Compact Commission was not prepared to discuss details such as how the structure would work or its legalities. The commission will make the preparations to discuss the proposal further in the upcoming session.

Representatives of the Federal Government said they would like litigation experts to look into the process such as BIA experts with experience in the hydrologic process and plan to gain a better understanding of the technical work to explore how to support the effort. They also expressed how encouraging it is to see the state and tribes work together.

The next Water Rights Negotiation session will take place on April 30.