I am writing this letter in response to the BRID commissioners’ outrageous statements as to the fact that the Three Mile Gravity System being a private water system. You would think that a person in the position of being a water district commissioner would (should) know the requirements for being designated a private system. If they had looked under Montana law they would have noticed that the Three Mile group would have been required to have an elected executive board, the authority to incur debt, the authority to tax the membership and the group would be required to have all the easements in the area to supply water to the users. If the commissioners had checked with DNRC and Ravalli District Court, they would have found that BRID is the only water system that meets all of the above list criteria and that no one or no group has ever applied to be a private system for Three Mile. The fact of the matter, BRID owns the Three Mile Gravity System and has from the start.
The BRID commissioners’ second statement was that they were “just” the sponsors of the Three Mile system. That one they got right, however, if they had looked at the Montana Water Code under which the Three Mile System had been financed 85-7-2102, 85-7-2107 and 85-7-2114, they would have found that nowhere in the statutes does it allow the commissioners the powers to designate the Three Mile project as private, in fact, just the opposite. In layman’s terms, the Three Mile group was “approached by BRID” with the proposal to put in an underground pipeline (Aug. 7, 1979) to improve the water distribution to the users, but, the law states that only the irrigators using/getting the use of the pipe can be taxed, not the whole district. So BRID formed a Special Tax District to finance the project, that’s the extra $16.00 per acre. When the loan is paid for, BRID retains ownership of the pipeline as part of “BRID’s” infrastructure, and as part of BRID’s infrastructure, they are required to maintain it, not just walk away.
For the past one and one half years, BRID has been pursuing a campaign of smoke and mirrors, open ended statements and bending the truth to match their agenda to get out of doing their duty to the citizens of Three Mile. I urge every member of Three Mile Gravity System who has signed the petition for a sub district to contact BRID and rescind your vote. In 1979, BRID asked the users to pay for an underground pipe which has benefited the entire district. We did our part. Now, it’s time for BRID to do their part. Please pull your ballot and stop BRID from running away from their responsibility.
Shane Brooks
Stevensville