A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

8 January 2015 • 1852 MST

Flathead Water Compact updates

A summary of the renegotiated compact is now available online (pdf), but the updated appendices still are not available.

The modified compact will be presented in Kalispell at 0900 Saturday morning, 10 January, at the Hilton.

At Polymontana, Dr. Ed Berry has been methodically and convincingly refuting the anti-compact arguments being made by some of the compact’s most adamant detractors.

Rescued by Congress? I still suspect that some of the opponents who prefer to duke it out in court regard litigation not as a path to victory, although they hope they might get lucky, but as a delaying tactic so that in 2017 a Republican Congress and President can provide a legislative solution. Conrad Burns and Rick Hill tried that in 1999, and failed, but the hope that the federal government will sell the Hellgate Treaty down the river springs eternal.

An interesting history of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (pdf) is available from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.