Compact opponents should have done their homework

The Jan. 1, 2015 Missoulian report on the Flathead Joint Board of Control (FJBC) approval of a resolution opposing the proposed CSKT water Compact quoted board member Jerry Laskody as saying that “We were totally left out of the negotiations.”  But whether through petulance, arrogance or both, the FJBC Compact opponents excluded themselves from actively participating in the six public Compact negotiating sessions over the past four months.    

Even worse, the anti-Compact resolution reveals that FJBC failed to even follow developments and agreements reached during the negotiating sessions, including Compact modifications that incorporated recommendations from the MT legislature’s interim water committee (WPIC).  Some of those modifications address issues raised in the FJBC resolution.

For example, the FJBC resolution states that the Compact failed to define a “Court of Competent Jurisdiction”. But in response to a WPIC recommendation the Compact now specifically defines the Court of Competent Jurisdiction.

The FJBC resolution also states that the Compact “requires “individual landowners “to relinquish” any and all claims to irrigation water.  That was language in the old agreement, but the modified Compact drops that restriction and makes it clear that anyone who believes they have a water right can submit their claim to the Montana Water Court for a determination as to whether that claim is a valid water right.    

There are other examples where the FJBC resolution reveals that Compact opponents are ignorant of very positive Compact changes negotiated in public during the last few months.

Failure of FJBC Compact opponents to follow developments and changes in the Compact agreed during the public negotiations is a gross violation of their duty to represent all irrigators.  If they did not want to do the homework themselves they should have asked their high paid lawyers.

— Dick Erb, Moiese