据美国水事在线报道，美国蒙大拿州长玛兹（Judy Martz）正在推动重新谈判一项1921年达成的国际协议。最新的研究表明，这项协议导致加拿大灌水户从圣玛丽河和麦尔克河（the St. Mary and Milk rivers）的取用量超过了其用水指标。
  蒙大纳州的研究发现，居住在麦尔克河流域的蒙大纳州农民，在过去半个世纪里每年少得到9万英亩英尺的水，1英亩英尺的水等于32.5851万加仑。
玛兹指出，在过去83年里，一直未对这项协议重新考虑过。
  加拿大亚伯特省政府环境部门发言人 Robert Boyles说，亚伯特省官员认为，这项协议运行良好，反对有关修改协议的建议。
  去年4月，玛兹要求国际联合委员会，一个由3个加拿大人和3个美国人组成的专门监督这项协议的小组重新审查这项1921年达成的协议。
  蒙大拿州自然资源保护部水管理局局长Richard Moy说，该委员会尚未决定是否重新审议这项协议，但是在今年夏天在哈法﹝Havre﹞、马耳他（Malta）和加拿大的两个社区举行公开会议。
  这项协议规定，美国和加拿大从上述两河中各取用一半水资源。这两条河被认为是一条河流，两条河的源头都在位于蒙大拿州的国家冰川公园，都向北流入加拿大。
  Moy说，麦尔克河然后再次流回进入蒙大拿州Havre北部。从那儿，它向东流去，成为Hi-Line农业的经济生命线。
  在国家冰川公园东部平原上的一条渠道把流速很快的圣玛丽河里的水引入流动较缓的麦尔克河。
  Moy说，蒙大拿州大约14万英亩的土地由麦尔克河水灌溉，在这些地区种植的作物产出占全州农业经济的8％。
  去年12月，蒙大拿州官员向国际委员会提交了一个分析报告。分析表明，由于受许多因素的影响，主要是因为麦尔克河有规则的干枯，而圣玛丽河很少干枯，蒙大拿州得到的水要通常分得的份额要少。
  分析表明，蒙大拿州的农民多年以来仅取得大约43％的水，在干旱年份只占37％。
  Moy说，事情更复杂的是，在1921年签署协议时，没有人关注美国印第安人所持的水权。几个部落都持有这两条河的水权，但是只有一个即Blackfeet部落 在拥有多少水权问题上与州里还未解决。
  Blackfeet部落对水权的主张要追溯到1855年，远比这项协议或其他任何主张要早。Moy说，Blackfeet 部落将最终与州解决这一问题，并决定取水。

原文如下：

Study: Canada takes too much water
April 2004
U.S. Water News Online
HELENA -- Gov. Judy Martz is pushing to renegotiate a 1921 international agreement that, according to a recent study, has let Canadian irrigators take more than their share of water from the St. Mary and Milk rivers.
Montana farmers in the Milk River Basin have been shortchanged about 90,000 acre feet a year for the past half-century, the state study found. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons.
The agreement has not been reviewed in 83 years, Martz noted.
Robert Boyles, a spokesman for Alberta Environment, the environmental agency of the Alberta provincial government, said Alberta officials believe the agreement is working fine and oppose the idea of changing it
Last April, Martz asked the International Joint Commission, the panel of three Canadians and three Americans that oversees such agreements, to revisit the 1921 agreement.
The commission has not decided whether to reopen the agreement, but will hold public meetings this summer in Havre, Malta and two communities in Canada, said Richard Moy, chief of the Water Management Bureau in Montana's Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
The agreement provides for the United States and Canadian to share equally in the waters of the two rivers, which would be considered one stream. The headwaters of both rivers are in Glacier National Park in Montana, and both flow north into Canada.
The Milk River later flows back into Montana north of Havre. From there, it runs east and forms the economic lifeline of Hi-Line agriculture all the way to Glasgow, Moy said.
A canal on the plains east of Glacier Park deposits some water from the fast-moving St. Mary River into the slower Milk.
About 140,000 acres of Montana farmland are irrigated with Milk River water, Moy said, and the crops grown there make up about 8 percent of Montana's agriculture economy.
Montana officials submitted an analysis last December to the international commission. It showed that Montana routinely gets less than its share of water because of a variety of factors, but largely because the Milk River routinely runs dry and the St. Mary rarely does.
The analysis shows that Montana farmers have been averaging only about 43 percent of the water, and as little as 37 percent in dry years.
Further complicating the matter, Moy said, is that when the 1921 agreement was signed, nobody was paying much attention to water rights held by American Indians. Several tribes have rights to water in both rivers, but only one, the Blackfeet Nation, has yet to settle with the state about exactly how much water the tribe is owed.
The Blackfeet claim, far older than the treaty or any other claims to the water, dates to 1855. Moy said the Blackfeet will eventually settle with the state and may decide to take their water.