Tester introduces bill to Fund Milk River Project

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester announced he has introduced legislation to provide critical funding for the Milk River Project in north-central Montana.

  The Milk River Project, one of the first projects assigned to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation when it was created, provides water to irrigators — and recreationists and communities — along the Milk River from where it flows from Canada back into Montana north of Rudyard to its confluence with the Milk River.

A press release from Tester said that after he spoke to the St. Mary’s Working Group last week, he drafted a bill to ensure the federal government picks up 75 percent of the tab for the major water project. Currently, the federal portion of the project is 26 percent, burdening local jurisdictions with a hefty bill.

  “This legislation ensures that local taxpayers won’t be stuck with the enormous cost of this project,” Tester said in the release. “Investing in this infrastructure will provide water for families, businesses and farmers and ranchers in the region.”

  Tester faces a re-election challenge from state Auditor Matt Rosendale, a Republican, and Libertarian Rick Breckenridge.

Havre Publics Works Director Dave Peterson, a member of the working group, said all of the congressional candidates were invited to speak at the meeting and Tester, Rosendale, U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., and his challenger, Democrat Kathleen Williams, did speak to the working group.

Rosendale’s campaign had not by printing deadline this morning responded to a request for comment about the Milk River Project.

Peterson said if Tester’s bill passes it would be very beneficial to the project.

“Anything that is there would be helpful to getting the process moved forward,” he said.

Tester’s St. Mary’s Reinvestment Act will cover 75 percent of the cost of Sherburne Dam and Reservoir, Swift Current Creek Dike, Lower St. Mary Lake, St. Mary Canal Diversion Dam, and the St. Mary Canal.

The entire project is estimated to cost $41.9 million. It will provide water to 18,000 Montanans and irrigate enough cropland to feed one million people.

Tester recently secured $1.9 million for this project in the 2019 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act.

The St. Mary’s Working Group, comprising representatives of irrigation districts, communities, organizations and recreationists and co-chaired by Mt. Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and Montana State University Phillips County Extension Agent Mark Manoukian, was formed early last decade to find ways to repair and enhance the St. Mary Diversion.

The diversion was one of the first projects authorized for the Bureau of Reclamation to construct after the bureau was created in 1902. It is part of the Milk River Projec that also includes Fresno Reservoir west of Havre and Nelson Reservoir near Malta.

The diversion and storage system, which starts with Sherburne Reservoir on the edge of Glacier National Park and stretches for 29 miles of dams, dikes and siphons across the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, diverts water from St. Mary River into the North Fork of the Milk River. It then runs through Canada before re-entering Montana.

The system was built as a single-use system, to provide irrigation water, although it has since provided water for municipalities — Havre, Chinook and Harlem — as well as recreation opportunities.

The funding for the system, including repairs, is billed to the users each year, primarily paid for by the irrigators. The diversion, some of which is more than 100 years old, has been “Band-Aided” together through the years, and a grassroots effort started about 2000 to find ways to fund a major rehabilitation before a catastrophic failure occurred.