Some people may have come to you to sign Bitterroot Irrigation District (BRID) petition and told you that I have signed the petition. That is a lie. I have not and will not ever sign BRID’s petition for a sub-district in the Three Mile Area.
I have many reasons as to why I will not sign. The pipelines are not private. If they were private with this many users on them there would have to be documents filed in district court as a water association with a board and there is no such document. Easements would be in the water association name and they are not, they are in BRID’s name and they are permanent. If you look at the larger private pipeline easements they are in the water association’s name and not BRID.
BRID is going off of the Operation & Maintenance Agreement with the ASCS that says they will operate and maintain for 30 years. This agreement was to protect the collateral (pipelines) of the loan and that contract has been completed. The contract was between BRID and ASCS, not us Three Mile users, but they still have to deliver our water to our point of delivery which is our farm turnouts because we are water users under BRID. It states in BRID’s policies and procedure manual that water under the Three Mile Gravity Flow Pipeline will be delivered to the farm turnout which is on each individual’s property unless you live in a subdivision that was created after the pipelines went in; then you would have one turnout for the subdivision. But our point of delivery is not and has never been at the main canal even when this area used flood ditches. This has been this way for over 100 years.
When BRID has been asked to show documentation that shows that we are private they have said that they have nothing and that is because there is nothing. What they are trying to do to the people in Three Mile is totally wrong and in my opinion illegal. Because the law clearly states to create a sub-district the users would have to be acquired and we are already BRID users so therefore they cannot acquire.
Here is another scenario to think about. Ravalli Electric Co-op has easements on our property so they can operate and maintain their lines and poles. This is their line just like the pipelines are BRID’s.
Carol Neel
Stevensville