Milk River and St. Mary Study Board Webinar Thursday Outlines Study Goals

The 1st International St. Mary and Milk Rivers Study Board (ISMMRSB) and International Joint Commission (IJC) held an informational webinar Thursday night.

Two member of the Study Board that gave presentations were John Kilpatrick from U. S. Geological Survey from Helena, U. S. accredited officer and, U. S. Chair of the Study Board and Al Pitchner, accredited office for the Treaty and Co-Chair of the Study.

The purpose of the webinar was to share to study work plan, overview, history of water usage agreements between the United States and Canada, goals and future plans. The first thirty minutes was a presentation held by and the second half of the hour was a public Q & A period.

During the Q&A period, Marko Manoukian, the co-chair of the St. Mary’s Rehabilitaion Working Group raised a concern about previous data being excluded from the new study.

“As part of the working group under the Judy Martz administration, somewhere between 2001 and 2005, we had three of our working group members as part of a team that reviewed the 1921 order at the IGAC level: Dave Peterson, Randy Reed, and Randy Perez participated for the Fort Belknap Indian community. I’m wondering if whatever was discovered in those modeling and flows of the apportionment between the two countries is going to be a part of this study, or if that information is going to be released as to whatever conclusion it had at the time.”

Kilpatrick pointed out to Manoukian that was the Administrative Task Force and that data was from 2007 but assured Manoukian that was foundational to the current study being planned.

The public comment period ends August 29, 2022. Send your comment go to smmr@ijc.org