Water Wars Continue in Wyoming and Montana

By Headwaters News, 5-21-07

The water dispute between Wyoming and Montana regarding flows in the Powder and Tongue Rivers is so contentious, one Montana official said it is almost enough to start a war, to which the Billings Gazette responded with a story lead that provides a visual of a gunned stand-off at the border. But does this scenario over-dramatize the situation?

The situation revolves around an age-old battle over limited water supplies, a 50-year-old water compact, and modern-day technology and industry. In 1950, the two states created the Yellowstone River Compact, which sought to manage the water in these two basins, which cross state lines. But it didn’t dictate how much water each state was to receive. And now with highly efficient irrigation systems that return less than 10 percent of the water used to the rivers and 23,000 coalbed methane wells that discharge millions of gallons of groundwater that isn’t always fit for irrigation, but still has to go somewhere, the compact is out of date.

Montana is now suing Wyoming in hopes that the court system can wrangle out a solution, and has filed a motion in the U.S. Supreme Court. Wyoming’s attorney general, though, said that was unnecessary. The compact and state officials have worked out plenty of deals in other dry years, and should be able to do the same, he said.

But coalbed methane development in Wyoming is a much larger industry than it is in Montana, where officials have repeatedly said they want to take a slow and cautious approach, in an effort to control degradation of water and wildlife resources.

Nearly 131 years ago, the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians battled the 7th U.S. Cavalry in a fight to preserve their way of life in the same area (pdf) this battle is now taking place. Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and more than 260 soldiers were killed by several thousand Indian warriors. Today, the National Park Service administers a memorial to the event.

It’s unlikely arms will be drawn, but the battle to preserve a way of life on the Plains continues. Hopefully, though, there will be no more wars or gun battles to commemorate in 200 years.