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County commissioners press BIA and irrigation officials over low Little Bitterroot Lake levels and water deliveries
Summary
Flathead County commissioners and local residents pressed Bureau of Indian Affairs and Flathead Indian Irrigation Project officials July 22 about low Little Bitterroot Lake and Hubbard Reservoir levels, delayed communications, deferred maintenance and whether CSKT compact funds have addressed repairs; FIP officials cited low inflows, downstream hydraulic restrictions and staffing constraints.
Flathead County commissioners and local water users pressed officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (FIP) on July 22 over persistent low water levels at Little Bitterroot Lake and reduced deliveries to irrigators.
The meeting brought together the county, federal agency staff, congressional and state legislative staff, homeowners and irrigators to review reservoir operations and next steps. Nick Belcourt, acting project manager for FIP, said Little Bitterroot Lake is the largest of four reservoirs serving the Camas Division, with a storage capacity he described as "approximately 26,400 acre-feet." He said the reservoir’s shallow, flat basin produces large horizontal shoreline variation as pool level changes and that recent dry years forced FIP to operate the lake as a flow-through reservoir to move limited water downstream to Hubbard Reservoir and irrigation diversions.
"We’ve been struggling to deliver water in the Camas Division for the past three years," Belcourt…
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