Lake County Montana
From the MTGOP website:
Read more from Art Wittich, MTGOP Chairman, HERE!
(Published in Lee Enterprises newspapers, January 24, 2026)
Click the image for the article found in the Western Montana Water Rights blog.
January 25, 2026
Read this post in the Western Montana Water Rights blog and make sure to study the included map to see if you have rights to assert.
Waltons: An Urgent Call to Action | Western Montana Water Rights
Article published by Glenn Beck on January 20, 2026:
Fraudsters from outside Montana, using out-of-state facilities, sent recruiters to Native American reservations to target those with addiction, promising free luxury rehab in California. They tricked 207 struggling Americans into signing fraudulent forms for fake Obamacare health plans. These victims were then transported to rundown houses or Airbnbs posing as treatment centers, where they got little or no care; all the while, providers were billed $9,000 daily for these so-called “services.” When “treatment” ended, many were simply abandoned without a way home and left with massive medical debt.
… unlike the leadership of Minnesota, who are still tangled in the web of the Somali fraud case, Montana has taken strong, decisive action by canceling 80 of these fraudulent policies right away in partnership with the Trump administration—recovering $23.3 million of the stolen funds.
…
Read the full article HERE.
Think we had a lake water level problem before? Think your power bills are high now? Quietly slipping through the bureaucratic hands in an effort to stay out of the public eye are large data centers for POLSON, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Helena, and Billings. A contract for INITIAL 50 megawatts of power from the Kerr Dam, and an undisclosed quantity of water, have been slated for the data center in Polson. The Governor, in collaboration with out of state business entities, the CSKT, and Daines among other legislators, have promoted and signed off non-publicized deals on data centers in Montana, including one for the Polson area getting water and power from the Kerr Dam and Flathead river and lake. In June of 2025, it was publicized that Northwestern Energy was in negotiations for multiple data centers, with little disclosed on exactly who, where, and how much water and energy would be used and what impact it would have, but the initial contracts are for 1400 megawatts in 2026 to three data center companies (that’s the equivalent to 800k-1million homes). It has been near impossible to get information, but Quantum Investors and Bitzero have both made claims of opening data centers in Montana in 2026, including, “rural areas.” The purpose of the data centers are for both AI and/or bitcoin mining. The national data center map shows currently three buildings in Billings, one in Bozeman, one in Butte, and TWENTY data center buildings in Great Falls. This map only shows facilities that have been publicized and on record for at least six months, which means it does not show proposed centers nor centers in progress or not publicized. However, Northwestern Energy has already told the Montana Public Service Commission that they expect to provide utilities to these data centers starting in JANUARY 2026. A call to Kerr Dam had a representative inform me directly they are expecting to provide services sometime in spring of 2026.
SO WHO CARES?
If you have not been following the impacts of this, a recent study found that data centers in the US consumed more water than all the water bottling facilities (that was only what was found). There has been no identification of how much water would be needed for these Montana facilities, but if we are already having historic low lake levels because of drought, what will happen when we have a drought year and then have to meet the massive water demands of these centers? There has been zero information provided to the affected public on this.
Additionally, the costs of building and maintaining the electric grid to power the centers is generally being pawned off to the rest of the customer base. Some residents around the country saw 500% increase in their power bills. Why? Because if it took $5 million to upgrade the power grid infrastructure, the data center wasn’t held solely responsible and the cost was split equally among all the customers, with the data center representing only one customer! Northwestern Energy has already been confirming deals with these data centers, with no word whatsoever on how they would split any bill. This means that without public pressure, YOUR BILL would carry the tag of whatever cost it took to provide power to a single private business.
WHAT IS BEING DONE ABOUT THIS?
Montana law requires that Northwestern Energy show that there is no long term impact to customers from new large load contracts. In September 2025, Northwestern Energy stated they would not adhere to this as well as not offer opportunity for public comment or input. Gianforte and Daines, among the other parties leading this effort, are staying out of it and letting it all slide, as they are the ones who invited the data centers in the first place. At the end of November, a group of non-profits filed a petition with the Montana Public Service Commission asking to create a separate business classification for data centers, ensuring any costs associated with them are billed only to them. In response, Northwestern Energy filed a legal motion to acquire a protective order in disclosing any information in these contracts. There can be no other reason other than fear that the details will show that Northwestern Energy could break laws and/or confirm significant impacts to utility customers as well as water impacts.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1) Swarm Gianforte and Daines about the subject. If they aren’t going to act in their constituents favor, let them know no more votes for them!
2) Contact the Montana Public Service Commission and have them hold Northwestern Energy accountable to law. Each region has an ELECTED Commissioner. Contact them and tell them to advocate on your behalf, or no more votes for them!
3) Contact the Attorney General’s office and have them look into any and all breaches of Montana law around anyone involved with data centers.
4) Contact Zinke’s office (DC 202-225-5628, Kalispell 406-317-0027) and Sheehy’s office (DC 202-224-2264, Kalispell 406-257-3398). Call BOTH offices of each representative as the person answering the phone may not forward your complaint depending on who it is on what day at what location.
INFORMATION VERIFICATION
I do not know everything about this matter, nor do I have all the answers. The information in my write up is my personal summary that comes from about a dozen sources I found through numerous types of searches. I also called the Kerr Dam directly upon which they verified some of this info as well. I reached out to some contacts with different agencies who were also able to point me to some of this info. Overall, the information has been difficult to find and I’ve been given the runaround by representatives and Northwestern Energy. If you are looking to have me verify every bit of information for you, I won’t. I have put my time into this subject and given my summary of the information I have been able to find. I am not here to spend my time doing all of the work for you outside of informing you of my findings. I will give some links that can start you on the track, but if you’ve followed my posts before, I believe each person needs to follow their own research for their own conclusions if they question the author of a summary. Again, the limited links I am providing is only a fraction of what I found and does not represent the entirety of my sources.
NorthWestern Energy inks power agreement with AI data center planned for Yellowstone County
NorthWestern Energy inks power agreement with proposed AI data center in Yellowstone County
NorthWestern wants to supply new AI data center with enough electricity for 800K homes
NorthWestern Energy plans to power a massive new data center
January 2026
In numerous articles and for over a number of years, Concerned Citizens has pointed out the contradiction of the wealth of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes with their participation in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program for small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged.
Read more from Concerned Citizens of Montana on the Western Montana Water Rights blog HERE.
Fellow Patriots,
2026 is a critical year for our nation. We must retain the House and Senate to keep President Trump’s great revival and revitalization of America rolling! Make no mistake about it–President Trump is on the ballot in 2026, even though it is a mid-term!
December 1, 2025
