The Montana Supreme Court intends to review a recent Lake County District Court ruling that has potential to affect the viability of a water rights compact for the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes.

Although the tribes are not a direct party to the case, they petitioned the court to review the case on Tuesday and had an answer by Wednesday when the Supreme Court issued a stay on all related proceedings until the high court can review the case.

“Evidently, the Montana Supreme Court felt the matter was of such a significance that the high court issued a ruling in less than 24 hours after our filing,” said John Carter, a longtime water rights attorney for the tribes.

At issue is a Feb. 15 ruling from Lake County District Judge C.B. McNeil that a proposed water use agreement for irrigators on the Flathead Reservation is unconstitutional.

McNeil determined that the Flathead Joint Board of Control, which represented irrigators in negotiating the agreement, had no authority to transfer irrigator water rights to the tribes. The transfer of water rights was a prerequisite to irrigators becoming part of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project so the tribes could allocate water back to the irrigators.

The lawsuit was filed by an irrigators group, the Western Montana Water Users Association, against their own representative, the Joint Board of Control, and three irrigation districts on the reservation.

The water use agreement is one of three main components in the Salish-Kootenai water rights compact that was advanced to the Legislature for its consideration earlier this week by the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission.

Any legislative approval is contingent on the development of a water use agreement for irrigators that meets legal muster, so the Supreme Court review of McNeil’s decision will be critical to the compact.

The high court ordered McNeil, the Joint Board of Control, the Western Montana Water Users Association and the state Attorney General’s Office to respond to the tribes’ petition by March 14.

A tribal press release states that the tribes are seeking relief from “allegedly erroneous” proceedings in McNeil’s court that “frustrated the compact negotiations process that is recognized by the state Supreme Court and the Montana Legislature.”

It goes on to say that the tribes and the federal government are “inextricably intertwined regarding water rights, however the district court did not consider this and other pertinent matters of law. The filing states the district court erred in law by determining water rights ownership of some unnamed irrigators all without necessary and indispensable parties such as the tribes and the United States.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at [email protected].