A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Updated at 2213 MST. Need another example of the consequence of an election? You’ll find it at the Flathead County Commission tomorrow morning, when the commissioners consider approving a letter telling Governor Bullock (D) and Attorney General Fox that the Flathead County Commission opposes the Flathead Water Compact.
According to the InterLake’s Lynnette Hinzte, newly elected commissioner Phil Mitchell, who replaced Cal Scott, drafted the new letter, which would replace a letter approved last fall supporting, with numerous caveats, the compact. I could not find Mitchell’s letter on the County Commission’s website.
Nor could I find the renegotiated compact on the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission’s website. But I did find this:
December 2014 Revised Compact
Thank you for your interest in the proposed water rights compact between the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes and the State of Montana. Revised compact language is currently be drafted and will be posted soon. Please check back for updates.
The new language may be released this week. Update. It will be presented in Kalispell at 0900 on Saturday, 10 January, at the Hilton — two days after the commissioners consider their letter.
The inconvenience of not having the official facts about the renegotiated compact has not deterred Mitchell and fellow commissioner Pam Holmquist from opposing it. They've been attending meetings of the compact's opponents, talking to local legislators, and they think they know enough.
Besides, as Mitchell told Hintze:
“If they address the issues I address, then my letter is moot,” Mitchell said, adding that he expects any proposed changes to be “unbelievably minor.”
Mitchell’s letter presents a uniquely irrelevant statistic:
…under the proposed Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes compact, the average acre feet per tribal member is 6,827 acre feet of water, which is 77 times more water than the average outlined In compacts for the other six Indian reservations in Montana. [Hintze]
No kidding. And it might even be true (I haven’t checked Mitchell’s math). But even if true, so what? Might that average simply be a consequence of Western Montana’s being wetter than Eastern Montana?
Frankly, considering this letter before the release of the officially renegotiated compact language is both farcical and an embarrassment to Flathead County.