Water rights board to hold inaugural meeting in Ronan

The regulatory body for water rights on the Flathead Reservation is set to meet for the first time on Thursday in Ronan.

The five-person Flathead Reservation Water Management Board was created following the passage of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact last year. The bipartisan deal settled a decades-long dispute over water rights in western Montana and on the Flathead Reservation. It was signed into law by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Sept. 17.

The water board consists of two members appointed by the Montana governor and two members appointed by the CSKT Tribal Council. The four appointed members will select a fifth member on Thursday. The secretary of the Interior will select a sixth, ex officio member.

Gov. Greg Gianforte announced last week that he had appointed to the board Kalispell geologist Roger Noble and Polson attorney Kenneth Pitts.

According to the Governor’s Office, Noble is a registered professional geologist. He has more than 40 years of experience in water supply, water right permitting, and groundwater contaminant investigations. He serves as senior hydrogeologist and water right advisor for Water and Environmental Technologies in Kalispell. Noble’s term will run through the end of 2025.

Pitts has 37 years of experience in water law,  teaches environmental law and water law at the Salish Kootenai College. As an attorney, Pitts focuses on tribal contracting as well as environmental, natural resource, and arson investigation issues. Pitts’ term will run through 2023.

The CSKT Tribal Council selected Teresa Wall-McDonald to serve two years and Clayton Matt to serve four years on the board.

Matt graduated from the University of Montana and went on to earn a master’s in water resource administration from the University of Arizona. He headed CSKT’s Natural Resource Department and was spokesman for the Tribal water rights negotiation team. Matt has been a member of the tribal executive staff since 2010 and is currently director of Tribal Services.

Wall-McDonald earned a bachelor’s from Great Falls College-MSU and a master’s in education administration from Gonzaga University. She began working with tribal government in 1980 and was appointed to the Tribal Council in 1984 to fill an 18-month vacancy.

She was part of the team that prepared the Tribes’ legal case to assume ownership of Kerr Dam. Wall-McDonald has served as CSKT personnel director and head of Human Resource Development, Tribal Lands, and the Tribal Health Department. She is currently director of Human Resources for Salish Kootenai College.

The proposed agenda for the first meeting includes staff updates from Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, as well as discussion on board membership.

Public comment will be accepted. The board will meet at the Ronan Community Center from 1-3 p.m., with the public invited to attend via Zoom or in person. The link to join via Zoom can be accessed at csktribes.org or dnrc.mt.gov.

AS PART of the water compact, signed into law in September 2021, the tribes relinquished their claims to most of the water outside of the reservation. In exchange, the tribes received 211 water rights on their reservation, 10 water rights outside of the reservation and co-ownership of 58 other water rights.

The deal also created a $1.9 billion trust to settle claims and refurbish the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, and returned the 19,000-acre Bison Range in Sanders and Lake counties to tribal ownership.

Montana lawmakers passed legislation approving the compact in 2015.

The agreement was initially introduced in Congress by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in 2016 and reintroduced in December 2019 by Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines. It passed a year later and the tribe quickly ratified it.