Guest Column: Greg Jergeson

Putting water to beneficial use in a semi-arid state like Montana is dependent on two truths. Water must be physically available, and the corresponding truth is that there must be a legal right to use that available water supply. As the recent failure of Drop 5 on the St. Mary/Milk River Diversion system and the impending lack of adequate supplies in the Milk River later this summer make clear, the infrastructure to make the physical delivery of that water must be rebuilt and repaired. We must be thankful that the irrigators and State of Montana have stepped up to the plate to begin rebuilding Drop 5, and start work on Drop 2. Hopefully, our congressional delegation will secure the support of their colleagues to have the Federal Government participate in the entire reconstruction efforts on the whole project in a meaningful way. Correspondingly, the Fort Belknap Indian Community (FBIC) – Montana Water Compact, approved by the Montana Legislature in 2001, establishes the parameters of the rights to use of the water in the Milk River watershed.

Therefore, it is time to settle the Fort Belknap Indian Community’s (FBIC) Indian reserved water rights and create certainty for the Tribes and for other area water users, both on and off the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. It is long overdue. In 2001, Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature came together to adopt the negotiated FBIC-Montana Water Compact after a decade of negotiations, resulting in important water rights compromises. I know because I was a member of the Montana Senate at the time and joined an overwhelming majority of my fellow legislators in support of this Compact.

During that entire period, it was my privilege to represent Tribal members from the Fort Belknap Reservation as well as several upstream communities in the Montana Senate. The legislature approved the Compact after the Montana Water Rights Commission held many meetings with water users along the Hi-Line seeking their input into the details and compromises that would be necessary for a Compact agreement. I attended and monitored most of those meetings and determined that the final compact recognized and enhanced the mutual interests of both tribal and non-tribal water users in the region.

Now, we need the entire Montana Congressional delegation to come together, as they have for all other negotiated compacts in Montana, and support the “Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act.” The stakes are high. The Water Settlement Act will ratify the Compact, which is the result of compromises by the FBIC that support mitigation activities for the continued use of the Milk River and its tributaries by irrigators and communities in the basin. The state and federal governments also agreed to provide funding to mitigate the impact of the FBIC’s water development on other water users, in particular, in the Upper Peoples Creek area.

The compromises in the Water Compact help avoid lengthy and costly litigation. Succeeding federal administrations, including the current one, have publicly supported the continued policy of resolving Indian water rights through the negotiations and settlement process as a constructive alternative to protracted fights in the courts.

At the same time, the Water Settlement Act will support the FBIC’s development of their water rights by facilitating the construction of long overdue water infrastructure on tribal lands. The storage component of that infrastructure development will benefit downstream users as it facilitates the timely discharge, use, and re-charge of that water supply.

All-in-all, in the nineteen years since the Montana Legislature approved the Fort Belknap Compact, nothing has surfaced to disprove the wisdom of that approval. It is time for the Montana Congressional delegation to proceed with obtaining Congressional approval of FBIC’s water settlement bill.