County commissioners press BIA and irrigation officials over low Little Bitterroot Lake levels and water deliveries

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 said, attributing early seasonal releases in part to downstream hydraulic restrictions—culverts, encroachments and other bottlenecks that limit how quickly water can be moved and raise the risk of flooding if larger releases occur.

Irrigators told the commission the effect has been immediate. "The water is just about dry — I’m out of water today," said Chuck Stevens of the Camas Water District, who described a seasonal quota “right at two inches” for this year and said service costs had risen to about $40 per acre for limited allocations.

Commissioners and local representatives repeatedly asked whether money tied to the CSKT water-compact (frequently cited in the meeting as a $900 million funding pool for irrigation repairs) had been used to fix the problems. FIP and BIA staff said the compact funds are administered by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and that FIP does not directly receive those settlement dollars to allocate. "The water-settlement dollars… go all to CSKT," said Tim Sauer, acting branch chief for BIA Irrigation and Power. "That is not… money that goes into BIA. They make decisions on where that funding is spent." He and other BIA officials said they work with tribal representatives to prioritize projects but that tribal allocation decisions are separate.

Several commissioners and homeowners said the larger issue was lack of advance communication and coordination. Robbie Torgerson, vice president of the Little Bitterroot Lake Homeowners Association, told the commission the association had not been contacted by FIP or the BIA about lake levels. Donde Davis, acting superintendent for the Flathead Agency, acknowledged recent turnover at the agency, said she had been assigned to the Flathead office about two months earlier and apologized for delays in responding to a May 13 letter from local stakeholders.

BIA and FIP staff repeatedly cited deferred maintenance and limited staffing as constraints. "All of the irrigation project has a great deal of deferred maintenance," Tim Sauer said, adding that the project largely funds operations and maintenance from ratepayer collections and must prioritize competing needs across a large system.

Commissioners and stakeholders urged the BIA and FIP to convene a broad, multi‑agency meeting this fall or winter that includes irrigators, county staff, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, tribal representatives and federal/state drought programs to define options and objectives for next spring. FIP staff said they would work to improve communication and explore joint planning, but they also warned fixes may be limited by available water supplies and by permitting and staffing constraints for in-stream or channel work.

What happens next: commissioners asked the BIA to provide clearer, written responses to the questions raised at the July 22 meeting and to convene the multi‑party planning discussion requested by irrigators and homeowners. The county chair closed the session after a final offer from homeowners to help coordinate communications and a commitment from BIA staff to follow up.