Tester calls out Trump on water project funding

President Donald Trump's 2019 proposed budget represents a step backward for Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said in a letter to Trump Tuesday, the same day he and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., announced a hearing for a bill that could provide funding for such projects.

Cuts to the Bureau of Reclamation

in the president's budget, Tester said, would reduce funding for the project by $8.2 million, and the Fort Peck Reservation/Dry Prairie Water System by $10.5 million.

"These drastic cuts are in direct contradiction to the bipartisan support seen throughout Congress for investing in these types of water projects that provide clean water to rural communities," Tester said.

"I respectfully urge your Administration to support the use of funds that accrue to the Reclamation Fund for the purpose of supporting western water development, and rural water infrastructure projects and authorized Indian water rights settlements are well within that scope," he continued.

Rural communities, Tester said, are limited in the water

they receive which can limit the potential for economic development, cause health concerns and force families to purchase and ship in their own water supplies.

Daines, who along with the Tester sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he will make sure rural water projects receive the proper funding,

"Clean and reliable water is a basic necessity for all Montana families," Daines said. "As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will fight to make sure these projects receive the funding they need to deliver clean water."

A spokesperson for Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., said Congress appropriates the money for the projects.

"While the president has submitted his budget requests, Congress will ultimately decide how much to spend, including on Bureau of Reclamation projects in Montana," the spokesman said in an email Wednesday.

The $377-million Rocky Boy/ North Central Montana Regional Water System would provide Rocky Boy residents, and water systems in Chouteau, Hill, Glacier, Pondera, Teton and Toole counties, with a dependable source of drinking water from the Tiber Reservoir.

The project began in 1997, when the Chippewa Cree Tribe and Montana negotiated a water rights claim that allocated 10,000 acre feet from Tiber Reservoir, also called Lake Elwell, to the tribe. The agreement was later ratified by the Montana Legislature and the U.S. Congress and signed into law in 1999.

Though the initial agreement was to supply water to Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation it has expanded to other communities.

President George W. Bush signed the Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System Act, that authorized the design and construction of the project, in 2002.

When planning and construction of the system was first authorized in 2002, the overall project was estimated to cost $229 million, but because of inconsistent funding, completion has been delayed and the price tag has since soared to $377 million.

Last September, when a ground breaking ceremony was conducted for the system's water treatment plant, Tester said that to date only $80 million had been spent on the project.

Tester and Daines also announced Tuesday that their bill The Authorized Rural Water Project Creation Act, which would create a guaranteed annual fund for water projects, received a hearing in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Water and Power Subcommittee.

The bill would provide a guaranteed annual fund of $115 million over 20 years for rural water projects. It would provide an additional $80 million annually to authorized rural water projects, compared to the $28 million appropriated for construction in Fiscal Year 2017, and make good on trust and treaty responsibilities by dedicating $35 million annually to funding Indian water rights settlements, Tester said.

Funding would come from the Bureau of Land Management's Reclamation Fund. The fund uses revenues from onshore oil and gas development for infrastructure projects.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., first introduced the legislation in 2011, and last July marked the fourth time the legislation had been introduced.