St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group continues efforts

The group working to repair the water system that provides close to half — almost all in some years — of the water flowing through the Milk River met last week to continue the discussion about repairing the 110-year-old irrigation and municipal water system.

A press release about the meeting says The St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group had some good news — its former coordinator, Alan Mikkelsen, has been appointed as Bureau of Reclamation deputy commissioner and is stationed in Washington, D.C.

The group has been working for more than a decade to find ways to rebuild the 29 miles of dams, dikes and siphons on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation near the edge of Glacier National Park that transfer water from the St. Mary River to the North Fork of the Milk River, where it flows into Canada and then back into Montana en route to the Missouri River.

The St. Mary Diversion, part of the Milk River Project primarily created to provide irrigation water, was one of the first projects the Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to construct after it was created in 1902. The maintenance and repair of the diversion originally was funded by the irrigators using the water. Since then, the system also has provided water for recreation and for municipalities including Havre, Chinook and Harlem.

Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, co-chair of the working group, led a discussion during last week’s meeting of refocusing the group on three goals within its strategic plan. These are:

• Adjust cost allocation formula. Irrigators are responsible for 74 percent of all maintenance, repairs and rehabilitation. The ability of irrigators to repay the costs associated with rehabilitation of the St. Mary Diversion has been exceeded. It is proposed that an allocation of 15 percent to 25 percent of reimbursable funds for irrigators is more realistic and in line with their ability to pay.

• Determine realistic costs of rehabilitation. That will require coordination, cooperation with Blackfeet, state of Montana, Bureau of Reclamation and Milk River Joint Board of Control. A $3.7 million feasibility study for the St. Mary Diversion rehabilitation is contained in the Blackfeet Compact legislation approved by the tribe last week and already authorized by Montana and the federal government.

• Seek funding sources, federal, state and local, for rehabilitation of the St. Mary Diversion.

The group announced it will be coordinating a tour of the St. Mary Diversion facility in August, intended to help recruit policy advisors in the BOR as well as having members of Montana’s ccongressional delegation attend and see the state of the 110-year-old facility. Additionally, a one-day tour is proposed of the Canadian system which is over 500,000 irrigated acres in Alberta.

The working group discussed the need to find an interim coordinator to replace Mikkelsen due to his move to his position on the Bureau of Reclamation in D.C. Co-Chair Marko Manoukian and Milk River Joint Board of Control Manager Jennifer Patrick volunteered to be co-coordinators to take the place of Mikkelson with his move to D.C. Manoukian has been on the group since its inception in 2002 and Patrick joined in 2007 and has great familiarity with the Bureau of Reclamation

Patrick reported for the Milk River Joint Board of Control that the Nelson Dike construction near Malta is over budget by a minimum of $1.4 and possible as much as $2.4 million when construction is complete later this fall. Irrigators are responsible for 15 percent of the over charge. The good news, Patrick said, is that Nelson Reservoir is 75 percent full and irrigators can expect 2.3 acre feet of irrigation for 2017.

Manoukian reported on issues that illustrate the need for investment in projects like the St. Jary Diversion Rehabilitation, saying, for example, Brazilian beef exporters caught bribing meat inspectors to allow the exportation of rotten beef product and the deadly fires, killing people and livestock, last month in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas show the need. More than 2 million acres burned in the fires, causing loss of life, structures, and livestock. A minimum of 2 million head of livestock either killed by the fires or displaced due to lack of forage after the fire could be lost, he said.

These are reasons why the United State should be investing into its resources to produce food to feed people, Manourkian said.

The next St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group will be May 17 starting at 10 a.m. in Havre at Bear Paw Development.