Fort Belknap, Hill County Commission discuss water compact

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation Council President Andrew Werk Jr. told the Hill County Commissioners Thursday at the Hill County Courthouse that everyone has to work hand-in-hand to assure all Milk River water users’ needs are met and secured for the future.

“It really is about sharing and trying to look down the road,” Werk said. “… I’m thinking about our grandkids, and that means all of us, and their grandkids as water becomes more scarce and more competitive.”

Several representatives of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation joined with Hill County commissioners to discuss the Fort Belknap Indian Community’s Water Compact and what the reservation is planning for the future of the compact and the Milk River.

Werk said that they are working on completing the reservation’s water settlement in accordance to the laws they are set to follow. Since the Fort Belknap Water Compact passed the Montana Legislature in 2001, the reservation has been working on a Water Rights Settlement Act to introduce in the U.S. Congress.

The compact passed the Legislature with overwhelming support, he said, with more than 90% in favor of the compact. The council passed a resolution to move forward with the Water Rights Settlement Act. He added that the previous council members have put a large amount of time and work into the compact and, with the implementation of the settlement, the compact will go into effect on a federal level.

The reservation is taking a different approach with the settlement, stressing the urgency of the water going into effect due to its importance in the Milk River and the St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Project, he said. The reservation filed claims in 2015 with the state water court but the process of going through the water court system could take a long time. Werk said that even after agreements have been made with the water court, issue still might not be resolved.

“We’ll end up with a paper water right instead of a wet water right,” he said. “… We don’t want that to happen, and we are concerned about everyone that we have to share water with.”

By having the Water Rights Settlement Act pass, the compact would be put into effect and projects would be able to move forward, he said, adding that he is hoping to have the bill introduced in Congress before the end of the session.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said that he agrees with Werk, and people have to look at new options to solve these issues.

“I think that if we get creative and find ways that we can utilize and save the water, we can utilize it downstream later on,” he said. “It is not taking water rights away, it’s just insuring water for the water rights that are downstream for the irrigators who are on the Milk River and Fort Belknap.”

Werk said that the reservation’s water rights and the water issues they are facing reaches far beyond tribal borders.

The Fort Belknap reservation wants to talk to local governments, neighbors and organizations who share with the water and the tributaries about the future of the Milk River, he said.

He said the tribal council wanted to speak with Hill County commissioners to initially start the conversation.

“We are reaching out to talk to people, make them aware of what we’re doing, to be neighborly and see how we can work together and help and support one another,” Werk said. “But also we ask for support.”

Joanne Harmon Curry, an attorney with the firm Fredericks Peebles and Patterson LLP, said that the Water Rights Settlement Act has not been introduced yet, but the reservation is holding discussions with hopes the Montana delegation will introduce the bill this session.

“We are looking at coordinating, cooperating with the St. Mary’s project working group, which consists of many water users along the Milk River,” she said. “Wanting to bring those together in a coordinated way so that the Hi-Line region, where the tribes have a significant need and the secondary state water users have a significant need. We are looking at how we can bring that together to get the delegation support to move forward and to get approval.”

Werk said that the settlement is going to have regional impact.

“We really, really have to focus on solutions here for way down the road,” he said.

St. Mary’s and the Milk River

Woldezion Mesghinna, president and principal engineer of Natural Resources Consulting Engineers Inc., said he was been working with the reservation for the past 19 years with the water compact. The St. Mary’s Diversion transfers water from the St. Mary River into the Milk River, where the tribes are asking to draw 625 cubic-feet-per-second. He said that the request does not mean the tribe will be drawing the full amount every day, only a maximum number so the reservation can divert water primarily during the non-irrigation season.

He said that the reservation wants to divert the water into a 6,000 acre ft. storage.

About 20% to 30% of flow will go back into the Milk River as return flow water, he said.

Peterson said that a lot of the water the reservation takes out of the stream goes back in the stream on the other end. For example, 100 acre feet of water rights results in 75 acre-feet used. They use the water, but they do put it back in. Some of it goes back into air and rain, which is unaccounted for loss. Some of the water is also spilled on the way down stream.

“Those are all things that you can’t put numbers to,” he said. “But we have to understand that is part of it. We have a tremendous amount of water that passes by us that nobody gets to use.”

Mesghinna said that much of the water every year is lost and flows into the Missouri River. If a reservoir was constructed, he added, Indians and non-Indians would be able to take advantage of the reservoir. When the water compact was originally written, the idea was outlined and reviewed by irrigators and was approved, which was part of the reason for the overwhelming support. If the reservation implemented it, it would not impact anybody in the tributaries and is a “win-win” situation for everyone.

He added that St. Mary’s is in poor condition and needs repairs.

“I think that everybody — Indians and non-Indians — should join together and work to make it happen that the St. Mary’s rehabilitation is done,” he said.

Werk said that near Three Mile, down from the tribal agency, is where the reservation is planning on developing the storage reservoir.

Peterson said that several counties on the Hi-Line struggle with flooding, which makes a large amount of water unusable to irrigators and people who depend on the Milk River for water. He added that he personally calls the loss of water “ghost water.”

Werk said that the storage facility will help with flooding.

Joanne Harmon Curry said that when the reclamation law was originally passed in 1902 one of the high priority issues addressed in the law was flooding and safety. The priority of the agency at the time was to work to prevent flooding.

Peterson said that in his opinion one more storage facility, to hold back water in the spring, would help reduce the issue. The facility would begin above the Fresno Dam and gradually release water into the Milk River to maintain levels for everything below such as irrigators and counties.

Irrigators

Peterson said that without the St. Mary’s Diversion, the Milk River is not a river later in the year, and the Fort Belknap Water Compact plays a large roll in the Milk River, as well as St. Mary’s.

Peterson said that the idea is not going to take money away from St. Mary’s.

“St. Mary’s is the key, it’s number one, we all know that,” he said. “We need to get that done and we need to get that done soon because we don’t have enough duct tape and JB Weld to fix them pipes, there is just not enough made in this country.”

Peterson said the irrigators should not be required to pay all the funding.

“We need to look at those irrigators and say, ‘You know what, thank you, you’ve done a good job to this point,’” he said. “But we need to find other ways of funding, we can’t put it all on the back of an irrigator. That’s just not something that is right or feasible in my mind. So we need to look more to the recreational people.”

Letter of support for the water compact

Werk said what the Fort Belknap Indian Communty would like is a letter of support for the Water Rights Settlement Act signed by both Hill County and Fort Belknap to help get the bill to Congress. Agriculture is a big industry on the Hi-Line and that includes the reservation, he said. Looking down the road, he said, he wants them to work together looking toward the future of water.

Peterson said this was the first time the Fort Belknap Indian Community has reached out to the commission about the water compact and he was very impressed. Fort Belknap is taking the first step, but trying to get the compact passed takes time for it to move forward.

He said what he would like to see the letter of support start with strong support for funding the St. Mary’s Diversion Rehabilitation project and end with a statement about the importance of the water compact, as well as asking for funding for the storage facility on the reservation.

“We gotta be creative and efficient because that is the only way that we are going to be able to have enough water down the road for all of us,” Peterson said. “We need to work together this is; it’s a very big beginning, I think it’s very, very huge. … The more we are fractured the less efficient we are.”