Our View: Key support for water projects

U.S. Steve Daines, R-Mont., seems to be in sync with his Democratic colleagues, Sens. Jon Tester and John Walsh, in pushing Congress to approve funding for the north-central water project.

All three want to approve a plan to fully fund water projects that have been authorized.

The north-central Montana water project will provide valuable potable drinking water to Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and to far-flung parts of the Hi-Line that are removed from existing municipal water supplies.

Access to clean water is vital to farmers and ranchers who face numerous difficulties already.

The Montana congressional delegation has been working hard to get water to rural communities in Montana for a long time now.

Providing access to good water will make for “healthy families and stronger communities,” said Tester spokeswoman Marnee Banks.

But the increasingly difficulty budget crisis isn’t making it any easier to get funding for rural areas no matter how vital they might be.

Every part of the country will be pushing for local projects, and it will be hard to argue against many of these projects. Every program has value to someone.

But the water project has special importance to our region, and it is good that the state’s delegation, including Daines and Walsh, who may well face each other in the fall election, are working toward the same goal.