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Concrete was poured on Drop 5 last week on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works, the drop near the end of the 29-mile system of dams, dikes, canals, gigantic metal siphons and concrete drop structures that failed in May. Work on Drop 2 was planned for this year and is underway, and the work on Drop 5 was added after it failed May 17. “2020 has been quite the year, but we all need to remind ourselves we are 12 weeks and two days from the failure and we poured our first round of concrete on Drop 5 (last Monday), and if a...
Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jennifer Patrick gave Havre City Council an update Monday about the repairs taking place at the St. Mary Diversion. Progress has been made with construction, which began about a month ago at the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works to repair the concrete structure that collapsed, Drop 5 near the end of the 29-mile system of dams, dikes, canals, gigantic metal siphons and concrete drop structures, as well as another...
Havre Daily News staff Agencies have told the public that, despite releases from Fresno Reservoir for irrigation ending for the season, lower water levels in the reservoir are likely to impact fishing and irrigation at the reservoir. The more-than-100-year-old St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that supplies much of the water in the Milk River has been shut down since a concrete drop structure near the end of the 29-mile system collapsed in May. Work to repair that and another drop structure which had been in fear of...
Fort Belknap Fire Management and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation have confirmed that a fire is burning in the Little Rockies near Cow Creek in the Missouri Breaks, about 6 miles off the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. BLM Lewistown Duty Officer Don Pyrah said the initial call to dispatch for the fire was at about 8:30 a.m. and the bureau still has initial attack resources fighting the fire. Pyrah said this includes four engines, two helicopters, two water tenders, as well as firefighting aircraft and several local department...
Progress has been made with construction, which began about a month at the St. Mary Diversion to repair the structure that collapsed, Drop 5 near the end of the 29-mile system of dams, dikes, canals, gigantic metal siphons and concrete drop structures, as well as another structure, Drop 2, that was regarded as in danger of catastrophic failure. Work on Drop 2 was planned for this year, and the work on Drop 5 was added after it failed May 17. "We are finally seeing things come...
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks warned Tuesday in a story in its newsletter that the collapse of part of the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works could have an impact on fishing in the area. “Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is working with BOR to monitor this situation and its potential impacts to Fresno and Nelson reservoirs and the Milk River drainage,” the story says. Work is underway to repair the structure that collapsed, Drop 5 near the end of the 29-mile system of dams, dikes, canals, gigantic metal siphons and co...
With repairs ongoing on parts of the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that supplies much of the water in the Milk River, the water users found out they are getting a break on the repairs. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced Wednesday that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees operation of the system, has determined the repairs qualify as emergency work, reducing the cost to the users. Tester and Daines each had sent letters requesting the designation. The system is part of the Milk...
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced he is trying to add a change to how the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance is funded to a must-pass defense bill. Daines announced Wednesday he was trying to add the St. Mary’s Reinvestment Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. The action comes as work has started to repair two drop structures on the 29-mile diversion that takes water from the St. Mary River and transports it to the Milk River. One of those structures collapsed in May, shutting down the c...
Construction began Monday on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that suffered a catastrophic failure from a structure that collapsed in May. Meanwhile, work progresses in Congress to change the funding for the project and move forward on a complete rehabilitation of the century-old system, part of the Milk River Project that provides irrigation water in the river. Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jenn Patrick said no real updates or decisions points have been made beyond the start of the...
A contractor has been hired to do work to repair damage that has shut down the system that provides much of the water that flows through the Milk River, with no shortage of water expected in the communities that use the river as a source of water. St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works has been shut down since Drop 5, at the end of the 29-mile system, washed out and collapsed May 17. A joint press release by the Bureau of Reclamation and Milk River Joint Board of Control says Sletten Construction Company was selected to do...
Hill County Commission held a meeting with the Milk River Joint Board of Control Thursday to hear an update about the concrete drop structure on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that washed out and collapsed May 17. The Drop 5 structure, near the end of the more-than-100-year-old St. Mary Diversion, collapsed after decades of Milk River water users warning that a catostrophic failure would likely occure. A state working group was formed in 2003 to try to make plans and find funding to rehabilitate the structure,...
Bureau of Reclamation Montana Area Manager Steve Davies said Friday a team went on site Wednesday to where a concrete drop structure on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Work washed out and collapsed May 17 and looked holistically in terms of what options are available, for either a temporary or long-term fix. “There’s still a lot of groundwork being laid to make decisions on whether there’s a temporary repair or a permanent repair of Drop structure number 5,” he said. He said BOR had been on site last week working...
The St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group had a meeting Friday to discuss the collapse that occurred last Sunday of a drop structure in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Facilities that supply much of the water in the Milk River each year. “We need to get something done in the summer so that we’re not saddled with this in the winter with winter costs or heaven forbid start up in the spring without having really made any gains,” St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Co-Chair and Montana State University Phillips Count...
Members of the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group are having a meeting Friday about the collapse Sunday of a drop structure in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Facilities that supply much of the water in the Milk River each year. “If we don’t start addressing this disaster immediately, the water rationing for irrigators and municipalities will be much worse next year,” St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Co-Chair and Montana State University Phillips County Extension Agent Marko Manoukian said. He said winter time...
As Milk River water users have been warning for decades will happen, the 100-year-old system that supplies much of the water in the river has suffered a catastrophic failure. A concrete drop structure on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance work washed out and collapsed Sunday. St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Co-Chair and Montana State University Phillips County Extension Agent Marko Manoukian said Drop 5, which is one of five drops on the St. Mary's project up near...
Havre Daily News staff More restrictions and assistance have been announced in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation restricting overnight camping and Gov. Steve Bullock announcing authorization of assistance for people having trouble paying rent. Bullock announced Monday issued a directive to provide emergency rental assistance to help families with limited financial resources make ends meet during the unprecedented economic situation caused by COVID-19. “COVID-19 is taking a significant e...
The St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group met Wednesday virtually due to the coronavirus outbreak and discussed the lawsuit from the Alliance of the Wild Rockies regarding bull trout and updates on federal legislation on the St. Mary Diversion and Milk River Project. Bureau of Reclamation Montana Area Manager Steve Davies said a lawsuit was filed by the Alliance of the Wild Rockies at District Court in Great Falls. The lawsuit says the diversion ends up killing species bull trout and asks the courts to order BOR, which...
An attempt to rehabilitate the 100-year-old system that supplies much of the water to the Milk River is facing a legal setback. Wednesday, Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a lawsuit over the protection of bull trout requesting fish screens to be put up. “Bull trout have been listed as ‘Threatened’ under the Endangered Species Act for 20 years, but they are being killed by the hundreds every year due to poor dam design and operation, unscreened diversions into irrigation ditches and river dewatering,” Alliance for the Wil...
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is still ready to shut off a primary source of water in the Milk River. Jeff Baumberger of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees operations of the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works, said Wednesday during a meeting of the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group that the alliance sent another notice of intent to sue for bull trout passage in the diversion. The diversion and conveyance, completed more than a century ago to provide...
A notice of intent to sue over a threatened species in the Rocky Mountains that concerned people trying to rehabilitate the Lifeline of the Hi-Line has been resolved, with two federal agencies saying they will consult with each other about how to handle bull trout in the St. Mary Diversion. Alliance for the Wild Rockies in September filed a Notice of Intent to sue the Trump Administration's Department of Interior for the purpose of protecting bull trout in the management of...
An attempt to rehabilitate the 100-year-old system that supplies much of the water to the Milk River may be facing a legal setback. Alliance for the Wild Rockies plans to file a lawsuit over the threatened species bull trout in the management of the St Mary Diversion. Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Mike Garrity said bull trout are being killed by the hundreds every year due to poor dam design, unscreened diversions into irrigation ditches and river...
Note: This was provided by the office of Sen. Jon Tester WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Jon Tester today introduced the historic Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Compact in the United States Senate. The FBIC Water Compact will ratify the FBIC water rights settlement with the State of Montana, establish resources for critical water infrastructure development, provide for tribal and non-tribal irrigation rights, and return sacred FBIC lands to federal trust. “The FBIC Water Compact will provide certainty for water users, hel...
Hill County officials discussed an update on the levee system and announced a new Montana State University Extension Service central region department head during their monthly meeting Thursday. Hill County Planner Amy Ferguson said she and the county commissioners attended a meeting at the beginning of the month hosted by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation about flood plain mapping. “We are in the process of redoing the floodplain maps since the ones in my office are old, from the ’80s,” she said. “Unfo...
A project that will supply water to Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and people off the reservation in seven counties in north-central Montana is taking a major step forward. The Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee awarded Sletten Construction a $35.8 million contract to build the plant at Tiber Dam south of Chester that will treat water for the Rocky Boy’s/North Central Montana Regional Water System. “This is a pretty impressive project,” Sletten Construction Project Manager Kyle Blunn said. “It’s not very often that...
The weather in all four of the counties I represent has been just a bit marginal, a point you all have clearly witnessed. For the rural folks, clean-up and road repair has come very slowly as Mother Nature has not cooperated. So, please slow down and give the county road crews the opportunity to get caught up. As an Education Committee member who has listened to presentations on the subject of bullying for a number of bills, I assumed I knew what bullying is. Come to find out, the Office of Public Instruction has now...
