COEUR d'ALENE - Representatives of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe met with Kootenai County commissioners on Wednesday to discuss water rights.

Helo Hancock, legislative director for the Tribe, explained to commissioners how the federal government files claims on behalf of the Tribe, and why.

Tribes are unique in any prior-appropriation water rights state because older water rights take priority over newer rights. It is called "first in time, first in rights."

Tribes obviously would have the oldest claims to the water.

Tribes and cities are also allowed to claim future water rights if they can prove there is an "express purpose" for doing so, unlike individual water rights which must be put to a "beneficial use" or are lost.

Hancock said the federal government has filed 353 claims on behalf of the Tribe, and its "consumptive use" claims are less than 1 percent of the available water in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.

The Tribe also worked with federal agencies to file instream flow claims on its behalf to protect the level of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

"Our interest in doing so is to maintain lake levels," he said. "It's no secret that our entire region, and I think the economy in many ways, revolve around that lake."

Hancock said the best way, in the Tribe's opinion, to protect the lake levels from downstream interests is to adjudicate Tribal water rights under the federal process.

While the adjudication of the Snake River Basin in southern Idaho took 27 years and got fairly contentious at times, Hancock doesn't expect that to happen in the Coeur d'Alene Basin process.

He said agricultural interests are much stronger in southern Idaho, and they have less water in that part of the state. He doesn't expect the Coeur d'Alene Basin adjudication to be nearly as contentious because there is much more water to meet the needs of North Idaho residents well into the future.

But, he cautioned, that doesn't stop downstream interests from attempting to lay claim to Idaho's water.

"We have a tremendous asset here in terms of abundant water, but we also have folks just across the border that are very interested in that," Hancock said. "At some point they will likely file claims for Idaho water.

"I think we have an opportunity to work together as a community to protect as much water in Idaho as we can, and the Tribe can be very helpful in that."

Commissioner Todd Tondee said he was a commissioner when the Legislature appropriated the money to adjudicate water in the Coeur d'Alene Basin.

"A group from here was asking for that because of the challenges we have here between Washington and Idaho," he said, adding that one of the main points broached at that time was that Idaho wanted to make sure water rights were adjudicated in case Washington decided to file a federal claim for more water.

Tondee said having legally adjudicated water rights would give Idaho an edge in the courts.

"Eventually, it's going to happen; Washington is going to start claiming our water," he said.

Hancock agreed with Tondee and explained the process for one state claiming another state's water. He said the state disputes go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court and a water master is assigned to determine how much water each state gets.

The Supreme Court doesn't consider "first in time, first in rights" at that level, Hancock said. Even though a state may have every drop of water apportioned, the court looks at other factors to determine how much water is needed in each state.

"Population is a big part of that," Hancock said. "I do agree with the Legislature that it helps our case to have that water appropriated.

"Our hope is that we can look at this as 'we are Idahoans trying to keep as much of Idaho's water in Idaho that we can,'" he added. "And, frankly, the federal reserve water rights are some of the strongest when states are fighting states."

Hancock said the Tribe has agreed to a negotiation process with stakeholders in the Coeur d'Alene Basin rather than going through a lengthy court process.

Hancock believes the negotiation process will be much more flexible in resolving disputes. The court process is much more rigid, he added.

The Tribe is now waiting for the state of Idaho to set up a process for negotiating the federal claims on its behalf.