The Montana Water Resources Association: Advocating for Montana Irrigated Agriculture in Helena and Washington, DC
The St. Mary siphon carries water to the Milk River.
M
ike Murphy has decades of experience in agriculture and has been the executive director of the Montana Water Resources Association (MWRA) for 27 years. MWRA advocates for Montana’s irrigated agriculture on both the state and the federal levels. In this interview, Mr. Murphy tells Irrigation Leader about the association’s top issues, including infrastructure funding and water rights adjudications. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background.
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the irrigation issues facing the association today.
24 | IRRIGATION LEADER | July/August 2020
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MWRA.
Mike Murphy: I grew up in an agricultural environment. My family has been involved in Montana agriculture since the late 1800s. As a child, I started out in 4‑H with lambs, and over the years, I continued my involvement in agriculture. My wife Jeanne and our kids and I continued our involvement in production agriculture with the purchase of our own ranch and have been raising cattle for more than 35 years. Over the years, I came to understand and appreciate the value of water even more, and when the opportunity arose to become the executive director of MWRA, I jumped at the opportunity. I started with MWRA in 1993 and have been with the association for about 27 years. I have the pleasure and the honor of representing Montana’s agricultural industry and all its water users. As an organization, MWRA works hard to protect water rights and keep water available for agriculture as well as municipalities and other water users.
Mike Murphy: One of the bigger issues that we face here in Montana is that a lot of our irrigation projects were developed 50–100 years ago and are now at the point where they need fairly substantial renovation, retrofits, and modernization. In many cases, the cost of those repairs exceeds the ability of the agricultural producers to pay for them. Finding the financial resources to restore and maintain those projects in order to keep them going for future generations is a challenge. The Milk River Project is an important example, but similar problems are found throughout the state of Montana. Another important issue we are trying to get through is the overall Montana water right adjudication process, which will determine what water rights agriculture and other water users actually have throughout the state. One specific related issue that needs to be resolved in order to complete the adjudication process is that of reserved water rights. Among the reserved rights that are particularly important to completing the statewide adjudication are those associated with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT). The CSKT reserved rights are the last of seven tribal water rights to be negotiated. In fact, there is currently legislation in Congress to address the settlement authorization for that particular compact: the Montana Water Rights Protection Act, which was introduced by Montana's United States Senators, Steve Daines and Jon Tester. Infrastructure and adjudication are just a couple of the big issues that we’ve worked on. MWRA works on a wide range of issues that affect irrigated agriculture, including the Endangered Species Act. The Lower Yellowstone Irrigation
