The International Poplar River and Big Muddy Creek Task Force will be holding two public meetings next week to gather feedback from residents, water users, and local stakeholders on water issues in the basin shared by Saskatchewan and Montana.
The meetings will take place on Tuesday, June 10th, in Scobey, Montana, and on Wednesday, June 11th, in Coronach. The goal is to hear directly from people who live and work in the basin about their experiences and concerns related to water use, availability, and quality.
Patrick Cherneski, the Canadian co-chair of the Task Force, explained that the group was established by the International Joint Commission (IJC) in October 2024 to identify gaps in current water monitoring and reporting.
“There’s been a long-standing committee doing monitoring since 1980, particularly around the Coronach power plant,” Cherneski said. “But this task force is more of a moment-in-time assessment, a needs assessment to determine if there are any gaps in that monitoring.”
The IJC is a binational body created under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to help prevent and resolve disputes over the use of shared waters between Canada and the United States, such as the Poplar River and Big Muddy Creek or the Souris River that runs through Weyburn.
The Poplar River and Big Muddy Creek are unique among Saskatchewan’s waterways in that they eventually drain south into the Missouri River, flowing all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
With concerns growing around drought, extreme weather, water quality, and Indigenous collaboration, the meetings are intended to give the public an opportunity to inform the task force’s work with local perspectives.
“There is more awareness and interest in Indigenous perspectives and collaboration,” Cherneski said. “We’re here to listen.”
The meetings will be held at the Nemont Telephone Cooperative's Friendship Room in Scobey and June 11th, and at the Coronach Community Hall in Coronach the following day. The meetings will start at 6 p.m. local time in both locations.
Attendees do not need to register in advance. There won’t be a virtual option to attend the meetings, however, those wishing to take part will need to attend the meeting in person.