Throughout the past 30 years, Three Mile Irrigators have effectively and efficiently satisfied a very large debt and maintained a very efficient Gravity Irrigation System through tax assessment.
The group Citizens for Fair Water (CFW) has filed a lawsuit in an effort to steal the Three Mile Gravity System from the 400 irrigators who built it, and force another entity (BRID) to take possession of it. This ongoing litigation has the potential of costing not only the Three Mile irrigators several hundred thousand dollars but all of the 1,400 BRID irrigators.
There are many private gravity systems BRID serves along the Big Ditch. BRID’s responsibility to each private system ends at the ditch/canal head gate with exception for the Three Mile Gravity System should they operate as a subdistrict.
1. Each private system may or may not form an elected board who would be responsible for the maintenance and management of that particular gravity system.
2. The irrigators of a private Gravity System would be invoiced monthly, bi-monthly however the HOA Board decides.
3. Each of the private gravity systems are responsible for their own maintenance, management, and collection of fees to finance all of these activities.
4. The exception regarding maintenance:
a) BRID’s responsibility to the Three Mile Gravity System did not end at the Ditch Canal Head Gate.
b) BRID had to assure to the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) that the system would be maintained while the loan (bond) was being satisfied.
c) The Three Mile Gravity System operated under BRID until the bond was satisfied.
d) Operating under BRID satisfied the legal requirements to operate in a Subdistrict manner which allowed tax assessment.
e) Now that the SCS bond is satisfied, the Three Mile Irrigators no longer have the tax assessment avenue to finance BRID’s maintenance services.
f) An Irrigation Subdistrict under BRID now has to be established in order for the Three Mile Irrigators to continue the tax assessment process.
g) The tax assessment process would satisfy the expenses of pipeline repairs and replacement, just as it has for the past 30 years!
Montana irrigation subdistrict regulations do not allow entities operating as HOAs to assess funds through the county tax process.
The BRID board of commissioners consist of five members elected by some 1,400 BRID irrigators.
1. Commissioner – Bill Postom, Como to Willow Creek (Coal Pit Rd.)
2. Commissioner – Steve Bauman, Willow Creek to Birch Creek (Camp 3)
3. Commissioner – Dave Golay, Birch Creek (Camp 3) to Burnt Fork Rd
4. Commissioner – John Schmiedeke, Burnt Fork Rd. to Ambrose
5. Commissioner – Matt Pendergast, Ambrose to Eagle Watch
The Three Mile Gravity System operating as a subdistrict, a board will be formed by the Three Mile Irrigators. The “subdistrict board” will represent the Three Mile Irrigators to the BRID Board of Commissioners.
BRID has clearly stated that the Three Mile Gravity System does not belong to them any more than any of the other gravity systems on the main ditch. It was never the intention of the original BRID board that the Three Mile Gravity System would be owned by some entity other than the irrigators who built it and paid for it. Irrigation Subdistrict Laws did not exist in Montana thirty years ago.
Under BRID the original thirty-year bond financed the Three Mile Gravity System. Under BRID the county tax assessment process was made possible. Thus, when the bond was satisfied in February of 2016 the tax assessment process disappeared with it.
BRID, understanding that this would happen, in 2014 made an offer to the Three Mile Irrigators to form a Subdistrict, under BRID. This would allow BRID to continue to support, manage and maintain the Three Mile Gravity System as they have for the past thirty years. The irrigators would finance this agreement through the county tax assessment process as they have for the past thirty years.
AGAIN, the formation of a subdistrict under BRID is ABSOLUTELY nothing more, nothing less than what has been in place for the past thirty years! To the irrigators helping to achieve this goal: thank you.
The very expensive lawsuit filed by Citizens for Fair Water will eventually be settled before a judge. If the court rules that BRID assumes responsibility (ownership) for the Three Mile Gravity System, BRID must charge all 1,400 water users for the Citizens for Fair Water’s court costs and legal fees!
The Three Mile Irrigators are at the point of HOW do they want their system managed? Will it be through a “Home Owners Association (HOA)” or through the formation of a “Subdistrict under BRID?”
Cary Hays
Stevensville