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News you can use
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Tom Luted Montana Free Press That mythical December character bearing gifts, could it be the Congressional Lame Duck? Irrigators along Montana’s Milk River hope it’s so. With weeks left in the congressional term, farmers along the Milk River are hopeful federal lawmakers will deliver at least some of the more than $300 million promised earlier in the year for the Milk River Irrigation Project, which delivers water to 18,000 people spread across 350-miles of the Montana Hi-line. The project’s plumbing rerouting water from...
Tom Lutey Montana Free Press That mythical December character bearing gifts, could it be the Congressional Lame Duck? Irrigators along Montana’s Milk River hope it’s so. With weeks left in the congressional term, farmers along the Milk River are hopeful federal lawmakers will deliver at least some of the more than $300 million promised earlier in the year for the Milk River Irrigation Project, which delivers water to 18,000 people spread across 350-miles of the Montana Hi-line. The project’s plumbing rerouting water from...
Funding to finish three major water infrastructure projects vital to this region was announced Tuesday, with money to finish funding the replacement of siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works, funding to guarantee completion of the diversion dam and headwaters project and funding to remove and replace joints on the spillway at Fresno Dam west of Havre. The funding for those projects are part of an $849 million investment from President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda to revitalize aging water d...
An influx of money from the state of Montana has covered the costs to irrigators for repairing the system that brings much of the money to the Milk River each year. The state announced early in November that a deal had been reached with the Milk River Joint Board of Control, the board that oversees the irrigation projects along the Milk River in this part of Montana, to provide at $26 million loan to the board to use in repairing the siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conve...
Havre Weekly Chronicle staff Gov Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday that the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation recently entered into a $26 million loan agreement with the Milk River Joint Board of Control to help fund repairs on the St. Mary Canal. June 17, a catastrophic failure of siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance works shut down the diversion that supplies much of the water in the Milk River each year. The river where it enters into Fresno Reservoir has been dry for most of the summer....
Staff and wire report U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last week that the the first sections of the 90-inch replacement pipe for the St. Mary Siphon had arrived, marking a major milestone of the extensive project to restore the damaged siphon. This milestone sets the stage for replacing the critical infrastructure that delivers water to the Milk River Project, a lifeline for north-central Montana ranchers, farmers, and communities. "This delivery of the replacement pipe...
Press release U.S. Bureau of Reclamation received the first sections of the 90-inch replacement pipe for the St. Mary Siphon, marking a major milestone of the extensive project to restore the damaged siphon. This milestone sets the stage for replacing the critical infrastructure that delivers water to the Milk River Project, a lifeline for north-central Montana ranchers, farmers, and communities. The St. Mary Siphon is an essential component of the Milk River Project, one of M...
Sen. Jon Tester announced last Thursday that he had secured another $2 million to repair the catastrophic failure of two siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that shut down the water being diverted to the Milk River. "It is critically important for irrigators who rely on the Milk River Project that we get water flowing as soon as possible," said Tester. "I'm glad to see that significant progress is already being made, but we've got to keep this project fully...
Staff and wire report The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week it is working on providing assistance to Milk River irrigators impacted by the catastrophic failure of two siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that provides much of the water in the Milk River most years. “While the Bureau of Reclamation and other key partners coordinate the essential repairs to the St. Mary Canal Siphon and other components of the Milk River Project, we are working to create and fund an initiative t...
Press release WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $400 million with at least 18 irrigation districts to help farmers continue commodity production while also conserving water across the West. This funding — which will support irrigation districts and producers in using innovative water savings technologies and farming practices while producing water-saving commodities in the face of continued drought — is expected to conserve up to 50,000 acre-feet in water...
Are the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Montana U.S. congressional delegation on the same “sheet of music” on plans to fix two failed steel siphon pipes near Babb? Are they talking? Exceptional reporting from Tim Leeds, Joshua Murdock, and Keila Szpaller reveal competing priorities that need a “Marshall Plan” to meet “cost, schedule, and performance.” As a former legislative aide at the U.S. Capitol, I used cost, schedule, and performance criteria to fund — or not fund — programs with taxpayer dollars. Let’s apply the three cr...
The cities of Chinook, Harlem and Havre are asking residents to voluntarily reduce lawn irrigation to conserve water while the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works are repaired. "Following the recent conditions of the siphons at the St. Mary Diversion, the Havre, Chinook, and Harlem communities have been working with Montana Rural Water to find ways to conserve water along the Milk River," Havre Public Works Director Trevor Mork said in a release this morning. "With our...
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Friday that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced it will start work “immediately” to rehabilitate the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that supplies much of the water that flows through the Milk River each year. Gov. Greg Gianforte also announced the news in a release Tuesday. “I’m grateful for this much needed federal assistance to repair the St. Mary and Halls Coulee siphons,” Gianforte said. “The State of Montana stands ready to assist local and federal officials in responding...
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced Friday that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced it will start work "immediately" to rehabilitate the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that supplies much of the water that flows through the Milk River each year. Tester said in a release that the administration of President Joe Biden announced Friday that the work will be done, following a catastrophic failure June 17 of two siphons in the system that carries water across 29 miles and...
Montana’s federal lawmakers are scrambling to pass a bill they have been working on for years — decades in the making — that would provide funding to rehabilitate and repair the failed irrigation system that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year. The Senate acted quickly last Thursday to unanimously pass a bill that includes funding St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance, money that could repair a catastrophic failure that shut the system down. The Senate passed Thursday by unanimous consent the Fort Belkn...
A siphon on the more-than-100-year-old system that provides much - almost all, in drought years - to the Milk River broke Monday, shutting down the system. The Montana Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation area manager said Tuesday the bureau was waiting for the water to finish flowing out of the breached siphons on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works and is working to get a feel for impacts caused by the breach and looking at possible models for replacement or...
From U.S. Department of the Interior WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today announced that 56 local governments in Montana will receive a total of $43.3 million in Payments in Lieu of Taxes funding for 2024. Because local governments cannot tax Federal lands, annual PILT payments help to defray the costs associated with maintaining important community services. A release from U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., lists the Montana payments, which included $1,258,897 for Blaine County, $483,587 for Chouteau County, $...
Editor’s note: This version corrects that the Senate passed the bill Thursday. The Senate acted quickly Thursday to unanimously pass a bill that includes funding for the system that provides much of the water running through the Milk River, money that could repair a catastrophic failure that shut the system down. The Senate passed Thursday by unanimous consent the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act, sponsored by by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and c...
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said Tuesday that he made another request for assistance in dealing with Monday’s catastrophic failure of the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year. Taster said in a press release that he called on President Joe Biden Tuesday to include the Milk River Project in his administration’s domestic supplemental package, which would make federal funding available to assist in the reconstruction of the St. Mary’s canal. “While it is too early t...
Updated 1:58 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, 2024 The Montana Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation area manager said today the bureau is waiting for the water to finish flowing out of the breached siphons on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works and is working to get a feel for impacts caused by the breach and looking at possible models for replacement or partial repair. “We’re currently in an analysis, data gathering stage and we’re going to be in that posture for at least...
Posted 2:45 p.m. Monday, June 17, 2024 Editor’s note: This version corrects that Babb did experience flooding. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said a siphon on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that provides much of the water to the Milk River each year breached about 8:45 this morning, causing flooding at a motel and shutting down the diversion. "Emergency response teams have been deployed to contain and evaluate the damage," Ryan Newman, Reclamation's Montana Area Offic...
Work is set to start on repairing a major part of the system that has been called “The Lifeline of the Hi-Line.” U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced last Thursday that a more-than $88 million contract that is funded through his bipartisan infrastructure law has been awarded to Montana-based NW Construction to complete the St. Mary Diversion Dam Replacement project. The contract is part of the up to $100 million Tester secured for the Milk River Project through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Tes...
From the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced Thursday that a more-than $88 million contract that is funded through his bipartisan infrastructure law has been awarded to Montana-based NW Construction to complete the St. Mary Diversion Dam Replacement project. The contract is part of the up to $100 million Tester secured for the Milk River Project through his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Tester negotiated and helped pass into law. Tester was the only m...
Monday, March 25, 2024 9:30 a.m. — Commissioner working session in the Commission Office 11 a.m. — Bureau of Reclamation meeting in the Commission Office regarding Beaver Creek Reservoir teams meeting 3:30 p.m. — Hill County Council on Aging director meeting in the Commission Office Tuesday, March 26, 2024 10:30 a.m. — Road department meeting in the Commission Office Wednesday, March 27, 2024 1:30 p.m. — Revize website training in the Timmons Room Thursday, March 28, 2024 10 a.m. — Weekly commissioner business meeting in...
Havre City Council discussed matters regarding Fresno Dam and St. Mary's Diversion and Water Conveyance projects during its monthly meeting Monday in Havre City Hall, and to review other items on the agenda. Following roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance, Resolution No. 3895 to Adopt a Custodial Fund for the Historic Preservation Commission was approved. Noah Schagunn and Aubree Erickson were recommended and approved as probationary police officers for the Havre Police...
