- Oct 17, 2011
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‘Save Flathead Lake’ Group Demands ‘Truth’ Over Depleted Water Levels
During a series of four meetings promoted by the Flathead County [Montana] Republicans, organizers challenged scientific consensus on the region’s historic drought and placed blame on Tribal dam management practicesOne of a series of four gatherings held in the region over the last week, it was promoted by the Flathead County Republican Central Committee and hosted by Dr. Annie Bukacek, a Public Service Commissioner who gained notoriety as a leader in the local anti-vaccine movement after she joined the Flathead City-County Board of Health in early 2020.
“This has to become a Flathead Bud Light moment,” said Dr. Al Olszewski, the chair of the Flathead County Republicans, referencing a national rallying point for conservatives over the beer brand’s supposed ‘woke’ associations. “Otherwise, you’re going to find we will be looking at Flathead Lake like Flathead Reservoir, going up and down and up and down. It’s time to say we will not drink this ‘Bud Light.’”
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Brian Lipscomb, the CEO of Energy Keepers Inc., the CSKT corporation that operates [the Tribal] SKQ Dam, told members of the Montana Legislature’s Water Policy Interim Committee (WPIC) on July 24 that “in 74 years of record keeping this is a new record low for water supply coming into the lake.”
“We identified this early. We saw it right out of the blocks,” Lipscomb said in his explanation to members of WPIC. “We started working with the Army Corps of Engineers and got relief from having to evacuate the lake and we began to refill the first week of March, six weeks early. Then we got relief from flood control and we filled the lake on May 30 to over 2 feet above normal.”
However, those proactive measures were not enough to offset the diminished inflows, Lipscomb said.
“Making decisions at either dam is complicated, but I don’t think changing anything would have mattered this year. There’s simply just no water in the basin,” [director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station Jim] Elser said ... "You can look at the drought maps — we’re in a severe drought and no one’s making that up.”