Bill to require feds to fund most of St. Mary rehabilitation introduced

The three members of Montana's congressional delegation announced today that they have introduced legislation to have the federal government pick up most of the cost of rehabilitating the Milk River Project.

In a joint press release, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., said the legislation ensures the federal government pays 75 percent of the cost of upgrades to the project.

The federal government now pays 26 percent of the cost of the project, originally authorized as an irrigation project at the start of the last century, with users - primarily irrigators but also users such as cities that use the Milk River as a water source - paying the rest.

Spearheaded by irrigators, a group early last decade starting working to find ways to repair and rehabilitate the infrastructure of the project, which essentially had been band-aided for decades to keep it running.

The project, which starts with a diversion system that transports water from the St. Mary River system to the Milk River, typically provides about 50 percent of the water that runs through the river each year. In drought years, the diversion system provides as much as 90 percent of the water in the river.

Watch for more in Friday's edition of the Havre Daily News.