Jenny Eck - House Minority Whip

Since I couldn't be at the meetings yesterday or today, I did my own action and personally emailed as many house and senate members as I could find emails for. I had an encouraging note back from Jenny Eck : "Hi Erica, Thank you for reaching out to me and letting me know about this. This is the first I’ve heard about it and it is indeed very concerning. As you know, water is our most precious and necessary resource it Montana … we can’t grow our economy or support our population without it. I have reached out to some of my legislative colleagues up in the Flathead to try to figure out where things are at with this. I’ll circle back when I know more. Please feel free to call any time. Thanks, Jenny Rep. Jenny Eck House Minority Whip HD 79, Helena, MT 406-459-1082" In other news.... My Aunt emailed me about the meeting in Big Fork last night, she said that it was "Interesting and very informative. It appears that our present water usage with the recent population growth is on the cusp of overdrawing the aquifer's recharge. So, more growth in population (of which some in this group are part of . . .) may very likely pose a greater threat to the long term water availability than the bottling plant. Now, don't get me wrong, the bottling plant is a horrible thing. Not just the water usage and shipping it out of the area, but the effluent back into the water system, plus who needs 80 trucks going up and down the road each 8 hour day??? But if you're purporting to protect the long term water supply in this valley - how do you deal with the very real threat from over population? (Bozeman has just run out of water, Helena is close to running out . . .) A closed basin? (Where NO more water permits are issued. You have to buy an existing permit.) Very complicated." I agree with her, the overdevelopment of the flathead in recent years is an issue for all the natural resources not just water and steps need to be taken to protect them. This is just one step on a long journey. Please keep spreading the word. We didn't have many new signatures today, lets keep the momentum going! Thank you lovely supporters!