Letter to the Editor - Fresno's management must change

Editor,

Fresno Reservoir, Aug. 23, 2022: The pelicans, herons, plovers, and gulls are mostly gone. The fish are starving, some are dying. The water levels are dropping faster than the clams can move. They die on the shore, far from the receding water’s edge. Fresno is almost 30 feet down and only 15 percent of capacity.

Despite the Bureau of Reclamation’s statement to “manage, develop, and protect water in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public,” they have sold almost all of Fresno’s water to the downstream irrigators, including the water entering the reservoir from Glacier Park’s Lake Sherburne. They are devastating a thriving warm-water fishery, destroying the ecological balance of a large body of water, and ignoring the economic benefits of recreation.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s own data proves recreation contributes as much to the economy as irrigation. Their Fresno water allocation chart includes fish, wildlife, and recreation along with irrigation and municipal use. But it’s the extreme water releases for irrigation that have lowered Fresno to 15 percent of capacity.

When full, Fresno holds 92,880 acre feet of water. Havre, Chinook and Harlem only divert an average of 2,079 acre feet in a year. Water releases for irrigation can use that much water in just a day or two. This year, as in several previous drought years, there is not enough incoming water to sustain these reservoir outflows.

The proposed Fresno dam construction is not scheduled to begin until possibly 2023 and even then, Fresno water levels will only be lowered to 20 feet below full pool from Aug. 15 to Dec. 1 of either 2023 or 2024. Twenty feet below full pool is the minimum level Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recommends to prevent lasting damage to the fishery. For the third year in a row, Fresno is now almost 30 feet below full pool.

The oft-repeated story of how the Milk River used to run dry every so many years until Reclamation saved the day by building a dam is old and outdated. This is 2022.

Reclamation did build a dam, but, in turn, they gave away control of all the water in the Milk River to a small number of irrigators who can drain Fresno Reservoir. And we bought it. Literally. The irrigators did not have the financial resources to maintain this entire system of gates, canals, and dams, so they turned to the federal government for help. It was the only sensible thing to do. So now, as this story goes, everyone will pay for the willful destruction of a resource that is being managed to serve only a few.

Carolyn Anderson

Havre