CSKT water compact bill clears first hurdle in U.S. Senate

Chris Aadland

Montana Free Press

A Montana water rights bill that would end a years-long debate was passed by a congressional committee Wednesday, the next step in ensuring irrigators and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes can avoid lengthy and costly adjudication of irrigation rights. 

Members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee passed the Montana Water Rights Protection Act on Wednesday afternoon, the first action federal lawmakers have taken on the bill since it was introduced by Montana Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., in December. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., co-sponsored the bill. 

“For decades, the CSKT water dispute has gone unresolved in Montana, leading to uncertainty for thousands of Montanans across our state. That’s why I introduced the bipartisan Montana Water Rights Protection Act which permanently settles the CSKT water dispute, protects the water rights of all Montanans, creates jobs, modernizes critical infrastructure needs in Northwestern Montana, protects Montana agriculture, avoids costly litigation and has the Trump administration’s support,” Daines said in a release Wednesday. “I am glad to see this committee take steps to advance my important legislation for Montana and resolve this dispute.”

Daines is running for re-election and faces Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and Wendie Fredrickson, who is running as a Green Party candidate although the Green Party told the Havre Daily News they have no affiliation with her or the PAC supporting her, in the November General Election.

“Today marked another big step forward for the CSKT Water Compact, and brings us even closer to providing the surety that water users in Montana desperately need,” Tester said in a press release Wednesday. “This settlement has overwhelming support from all across the state and both sides of the aisle, and will prevent years of costly litigation while protecting our state’s most valuable resource. I urge Senator McConnell to put the Montana Water Rights Protection Act up for a vote as quickly as possible, so we can pass this historic legislation and give Montana water users certainty for generations to come.”

“We are grateful for Sen. Tester’s leadership and hard work in getting us to this moment in time,” CSKT Chairwoman Shelly Fyant said in Tester’s release. “This legislation shows what can happen when we all work together. It will provide critical water infrastructure projects, create jobs, restore our fisheries and water quality, grow the economy and enhance the reservation’s natural landscape and ecosystem. We are grateful to Senator Tester for his years of hard work earning support among his colleagues for the Tribe’s Water Compact, and we look forward to finally seeing this important bill signed into law.”

The bill would resolve a century-old water rights dispute and allocate $1.9 billion to settle federal damage claims and to rehabilitate the deteriorating Flathead Indian Irrigation Project. In exchange for the tribes’ agreement to relinquish claims to off-reservation water rights, the bill would return control of the National Bison Range on the Flathead Indian Reservation to the tribes.

The bill would nullify any conflicts in the state legal system between the CSKT and landowners over water rights that could affect much of the state’s irrigated land. 

“For years, this has been a polarizing issue in Montana,” Daines said during an Indian Affairs Committee meeting late last month. “We have a constitutional duty to bring resolution to the CSKT water dispute, helping the tribe quantify and realize the water they are entitled to under the Hellgate Treaty, as well as a hundred years of federal court precedents. We must also provide a practical solution to resolve this significant liability for the United States, to protect Montana’s agricultural economy, and as I mentioned earlier, protect the water rights to all Montanans.”

The compact narrowly passed the Montana Legislature in 2015, but needed congressional approval to ratify the agreement. The Trump administration signaled its support for the compact in November.

“It does great things for building infrastructure, both inside the reservation and outside; it does great things for providing certainty to towns and water owners across Montana,” Tester said last month. “We need this water settlement for Montana. We need it for predictability. We need it for certainty. We need it to be able to continue to grow our economy.”

The foundation of the water compact is the 1855 Hellgate Treaty, which ensured CSKT rights to in-stream water rights beyond the borders of the Flathead Indian Reservation because the treaty guaranteed tribal members the right to fish at “all usual and accustomed places.”

Some Montana Republicans, however, have opposed the bill, arguing that it is improper to base a water agreement on the treaty, parts of which they consider archaic. 

Earlier this year, state Sen. Al Olszewski and four other Republican lawmakers urged Daines to withdraw the bill, saying the state legislation is based on flawed legal logic and yields too much control of water rights to the tribes. If passed by Congress, the bill would harm western Montana landowners, according to opponents, who expressed confidence that in the absence of a federal bill, Montana landowners stand a good chance of prevailing in water rights conflicts in state court. 

On the contrary, Daines said during last month’s Indian Affairs Committee hearing that federal courts have repeatedly upheld treaty-based water rights similar to the CSKT’s. 

Thousands of off-reservation CSKT water claims that could result in irrigators losing control of about 70 percent of their irrigation rights are currently pending, Daines said last month. 

Two amendments were made to the bill Wednesday, though the language of those amendments is not yet publicly known. Text of the changes wasn’t discussed during the committee meeting or immediately posted online. 

Spokespeople for Daines and Tester didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon. 

“This legislation — which is long overdue — is the result of years of negotiation and represents an innovative, collaborative solution. The water compact reflects a positive, forward-looking approach to water management, community development and ecosystem recovery,” said Tom France, regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, in a Wednesday press release. “The Salish and Kootenai Tribes played a pivotal role in saving bison from extinction in the late 1800s. This Act will right a historic wrong by returning management authority of the National Bison Range to the tribes.” 

In a press release today, Montana Farm Bureau also praised the committee passage.

“The passage of the Montana Water Rights Protection Act is great news for Montana. The legislation is a product of decades of negotiation and will settle farmers and ranchers water rights as far east as the Milk, Musselshell and Yellowstone rivers,” MFBF Executive Vice President John Youngberg said. “This bipartisan bill and settlement is a good-faith compromise that will bring final resolution to a century-long water dispute, avoiding years of costly litigation.”

“We especially want to thank bill sponsor Sen. Steve Daines for all of his hard work to bring the bill to this point, and also thank Sen. Tester for co-sponsoring this legislation,” Youngberg added.

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Havre Daily News staff contributed to this article.