WATER: Story runs deeper

Sometimes journalists have good intentions, but miss an important part of the story. I believe that happened with Jeff Selle’s story on July 6 about the North Idaho Water Rights adjudication. The part of his story about preventing people from holding water rights as investments sounded good. So did the parts about the Coeur d’Alene Tribe merely protecting the lake and mostly filing “very, very small” claims for wetlands. But did Jeff read the actual language in the claims the government has filed for the tribe? It paints a very, very different picture.

The tribe’s claims were filed by the Department of Justice. The claims state they “should not be construed to limit ... future use of water at other points of diversion, places of use or for other purposes ...” The attorney who filed these claims has stated that two-thirds of the domestic, commercial, municipal and industrial claims “go to the future.” And the priority dates in the claims go back to time immemorial or 1873 when the reservation was established. If approved, this would amount not only to holding the claims for investment value, but doing so without demonstrating any actual use.

The part of the story about there being only 353 claims for the tribe missed the other 979 tribal claims filed under one claim number for “Undetermined Current and Future Locations” for residential wells. That is an actual total of 1,331 claims. They include 7,453 acre-feet (that’s almost 2.5 billion gallons) for things like a casino, hotel, golf course and future fish hatchery; 17,815 acre-feet (almost 6 billion gallons) for “practicably irrigated agriculture;” and 12.7 million gallons per day for houses. Then there is that minor 7,102 acre feet (2.3 billion gallons) for the wetlands and three times that much for springs. These are significant numbers, and they are largely for uses that began long after 1873 or have yet to be established.

The July 6 story mentioned the potential to negotiate rather than litigate with the Tribe over water rights. If Jeff does a follow-up story, I hope he will investigate the actual cost to the state in dollars as well as gallons when that was done in the Snake River Basin Adjudication. More significant numbers.

Mr. Selle is a good journalist and I try not to miss any of his stories, but he should have done better this time. This is an incredibly important issue to all North Idaho water users. The tribe is asking for favorable treatment and the time for others to object is closing in fast.

JOHN McFADDIN

Medimont