A bill that would ratify the water rights compact for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will face its first legislative hearing Monday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Introduced earlier this month by state Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, Senate Bill 262 would ratify the compact, a negotiated settlement that quantifies the tribes’ water rights on and off the reservation.

An attempt to avoid thousands of far-reaching water rights claims threatened by the tribes, the proposed compact would cost the state $55 million.

Vincent held an educational session in Helena last weekend, where he and other proponents of the compact made the case for passage and invited members of the Legislature to bring their questions and concerns. About 40 lawmakers showed up, some complimenting the compact commission’s work on the revised agreement and others expressing a wide range of concerns.

Among the skeptics was state Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, who asked whether the bill would be open to amendments as it moves through the Legislature. Deputy Attorney General Cory Swanson answered that any amendments would effectively kill the bill since the compact is a settlement between three parties, who all would have to ratify the same compact for it to take effect.

Keenan, and more recently Sen. President Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, objected to the “take it or leave it” approach to legislating.

Other opponents have objected to the compact on the grounds that it gives too much water to the tribes or violates constitutional protections and existing legal precedents.

This is the second try to get the compact through the Legislature. In 2013 the compact died in the House Judiciary Committee.

Further negotiations since then produced a revised compact that includes a number of changes from its predecessor, including:

•  “Farm turnouts” for irrigators using the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project in the previous compact have been replaced with “river diversion allowances” based on hydrological modeling and historic water deliveries to irrigators.
•  An evaluation process would allow the project’s operator to make changes to those water allowances to meet historic demand.
•  A “shared shortage” provision reduces the amount of tribal water set aside for fish habitat during drier years in an attempt to continue meeting irrigators’ diversion needs.
•  Irrigators will be free to pursue water claims already filed in the state water court.

If it passes the Legislature, the compact also will need to be ratified by the U.S. Congress and the tribes before it takes effect.

Monday’s hearing will be at 8 a.m. in Room 303 in the state Capitol.

The full compact and all appendices can be found online at http://www.dnrc.mt.gov/rwrcc/Compacts/CSKT.

A live-stream of the hearing can be viewed by visiting the Legislature’s website, leg.mt.gov, and clicking the “Watch & Listen” link on the left, where the archived version also can be found.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com