Study on St. Mary diversion work progressing

A U. S. Bureau of Reclamations official said work to replace the diversion dam on the system that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year is progressing, although not at the rate at which he had hoped last year.

Kelly Titensor said in June 2010 that the bureau had hoped to have studies and procedures to meet National Environmental Policy Act requirements in place by September 2011, to allow construction on replacing the dam that diverts water to the Milk to start in 2012.

"That has been put indefinitely on hold, " he said during a St. Mary Working Group meeting Tuesday in Havre.

The working group was formed to coordinate a grassroots effort to rehabilitate the St. Mary Diversion, one of the first projects on which the newly created Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to work in 1903.

The diversion is part of the Milk River Project, an irrigation system created to provide water to agriculture producers in the Milk River Valley.

Since its creation, the diversion also supplies water to municipalities, including Havre, Chinook, Harlem and Fort Belknap, and for recreation.

The diversion dam, located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, reroutes water from the St. Mary River into a 29-mile long system of canals and siphons that transports it to the North Fork of the Milk River before it flows into Canada. The work on the diversion dam is separate from the rehabilitation effort.

The project is tied to the Endangered Species Act. The plan is to mitigate the impact the system has on the bull trout, which was declared a threatened species in 1999. The concern is that the dam keeps the fish from reaching their spawning grounds upstream from the dam, and that fish are diverted into the canal along with water and removed from their habitat.

Titensor said the study, so far, has identified some alternatives and work is proceeding to further study and design those alternatives. The issue now is one of money, he said. The original plan was to try for construction funds next year, he said.

"You've heard the budget talks. Right now we think that is unreasonable, unless you guys can pull a rabbit out of your hat, " Titensor said.

He said that, because the construction idea has been put on hold, he believes there is no chance the work could start in 2012.

The proposal includes building a new diversion dam slightly downstream from where the current dam now is located, still aligned with the canal. A fish ladder would be built to allow the fish to go upstream to spawn, while a screen would be used to move fish pulled into the canal back into the St. Mary River.

Titensor said that, once construction is started, it is expected to take three years for completion.