Somebody once said, “If you can’t dazzle them with the facts, baffle them with BS.” (bull stuff). Along with most irrigators in the Lone Rock/Three Mile area, I am baffled!
As stated in previous articles since 2013, one group of 4 or 5 (the suers) in the Three Mile area has sued the other 400 Three Mile irrigators (the suees). Over the years, legal fees have piled up and are now over $110,000+. I’m baffled as to who will get stuck with the bill?
The May 17-24 legal notice in the Bitterroot Star and Ravalli Republic says these two sides can state their differences to the court, indicating that the court must be baffled too! They are requesting more input. No matter how Judge Haynes decides, either the 4 or 5 who filed the lawsuit, or the 400 BRID users in Three Mile or all the 1,400 BRID water users will pay the cost of these legal fees.
I’m a pretty simple guy. I don’t sue – I talk it out, face-to-face. I have a small piece of ground in the Three Mile area and I get my irrigation water out of a 3-1/2-inch pipe that comes up on my property. I turn on the valve and voilà – water! I get billed on my taxes for the Miner Inches of BRID supplied water that I use. I used to get billed for the gravity pipe that was installed in the 1980’s, but, once we paid it off, that bill ended (kind of like paying off my car or house loan). Once paid, I own the car or house. The fact is that my pipeline is now paid off, and I own it along with the others who paid the bill. Another fact is, I have neighbors that used to be my friends now willing to fight, saying, “I don’t own the pipeline, BRID owns it!” But, BRID didn’t pay that bill, I did!
Because I was baffled, I started attending BRID monthly public meetings in Corvallis and they say they don’t own any of the 13 gravity lateral lines over the 75-mile stretch down the Bitterroot Valley… and that’s a fact!
• I’m baffled at how a handful of BRID irrigators took it upon themselves to sue the rest of us, especially when 60% of the Three Mile irrigators legally petitioned BRID in August 2015 and filed again on Dec. 13, 2016! 60%!
• I’m baffled as to just how I don’t own something I paid for. Regardless of how the funds were attained, I paid the bill!
• I’m baffled that some folks really don’t want to own something they paid for.
• I’m baffled at just who benefits from the lawsuit that was filed. (As one of the 400 Three Mile irrigators, I was never asked if I wanted to file a lawsuit against BRID and I do not know anyone who was asked if they wanted to)
• I’m baffled at why all the 1,400 BRID irrigation water users are not concerned that they may be required to pay over $110,000 for legal fees.
It’s too bad that whoever decided to sue BRID didn’t have what makes a bull a bull. Instead, they try to “steer” irrigators against each other, baffling us with BS. Something just stinks about this whole idea of neighbor suing neighbor, and now, we’re in court letting a judge make our decisions, and we pay the bill for what?
Just 1 of 1,400,
TC Richardson
Stevensville