St. Mary Diversion, a remarkable success in a trying year

One of the more remarkable stories of the year is that of the St. Mary Diversion and it's 22-week-long repair after experiencing a catastrophic failure back in May.

Nearly all involved with the effort called it a remarkable example of teamwork and inter-organizational cooperation in a year plagued by social isolation.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman said this project is an example to the nation of what they can do when they work together.

"It is truly incredible," she said in October at a ribbon cutting held by end of the diversion and conveyance system after construction was complete. 

Sletten Construction was contracted to make the repairs and representative Thad Pederson said the project was a team effort.

"I had no idea what we're getting into - it was a total team effort -  HDR, Bureau of Rec, Milk River Joint Board. (We) had a great time doing this," he said. "It was frustrating at times, but we got 'er done. I'd love to do another job with you guys, maybe on some different circumstances, but really appreciate the teamwork with these projects. It's not just one entity, one company, it's a whole team, and I think it turned out really well."

The final concrete drop structure in the more-than-a-century-old 29-mile-long St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year collapsed May 17, after decades of Milk River water users warning that would happen.

"It's an amazing project and I'm proud of everybody working together," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said at the re-opening ceremony. "It just shows the Montana attitude about the federal government working with the state, working with the local, working with the private sector, working with tribal government - up and down the line."

He said the project on the drops is a warning, it's warning to everybody, saying, "We got to get this thing rebuilt from beginning to end."

These sentiments were echoed by his congressional colleagues who vowed to keep fighting to make the maintenance of the diversion more affordable.

Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney, who is also the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group co-chair, said it's great to come together as they re-open the two key pieces of the St. Mary Canal.

"While it took a catastrophic failure and the loss of part of the irrigation season to trigger this investment, I am pleased we are making the effort to repair this critical water supply to complete the project in time to shore up water supplies for the winter and be prepared for the irrigation season next year," he said.

Representatives from the Blackfeet Tribe and Fort Belknap Indian Communities, both of which are affected by the diversion's ongoing problems praised the project for its speed and efficiency.

History

The diversion has a storied history as one of the most important infrastructure projects in the region. Unfortunately, the catastrophic failure in May was the culmination of years of warnings that were not followed up on in time.

At the start of the last century, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamations was created primarily to address water scarcity in the West. One of the first projects authorized for the BOR was the Milk River Project to provide irrigation water to Milk River Valley farmers and ranchers.

Using construction equipment often drawn by horses, a 29-mile system of dams, dykes, canals and 8-foot tall metal siphons that suck water over the Hudson Bay-Missouri River divide was completed, transferring water into the north fork of the Milk River which runs into Canada and then back down into Montana. The Milk River Project also includes Fresno Reservoir, Nelson Reservoir by Malta and other dams, dykes and reservoirs.

Patchwork repairs have been done to the system over the years, paid for primarily by the users.

Milk River water users began campaigning more than 20 years ago to find funding to rehabilitate the system to prevent catastrophic failure, which led to the state establishing the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group in 2003. The group has been working to plan and find funding for rehabilitation ever since.

St. Mary Working Group member and Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss said the the Drop 5 collapse in May was something that had been predicted for a long time.

"We've known for decades that the day would come when that structure would experience a catastrophic failure," he said. "Everybody was hoping against hope that day would be far into the future and that we would be able rehabilitate the St. Mary's system prior to when that catastrophic failure would occur."

Timeline

The project is now considered a huge success, but when Drop 5 collapsed back in May, the situation was more than a little bleak.

Milk River users had been warning for more than two decades that the century-old diversion and conveyance works was due for a catastrophic failure, and their warnings came true in mid-May of this year when Drop 5, the last drop in the system, all but crumbled.

The collapse meant that the diversion, which supplies water to communities including Havre, Chinook, Harlem and Fort Belknap Agency and is critical for local irrigators and the local agriculture industry in general, would not provide any water until it was fixed.

Before the diversion was built, the Milk River would dry up by the fall in about six out of 10 years, and in years of severe drought the diversion supplies up to 90 percent of the water to Milk River Project irrigators and communities using the Milk River for water.

St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Co-Chair and Montana State University Phillips County Extension Agent Marko Manoukian said back in May that the water supply would not run out due to the collapse, as water was still available in Fresno and Nelson reservoirs, the two primary storage facilities for the irrigation and municipalities, but the collapse meant that irrigators would only have one irrigation period this year.

Bureau of Reclamation Montana Area Manager Steve Davies said the cause of the collapse was unknown, but he suspects water breached the concrete slab, got underneath it and caused erosion which resulted in further collapse.

Tester said the cost of repairs is something BOR would have to shoulder or the irrigators would have have to choose between breaking the bank on emergency repairs or not receiving enough water this season, adding that he would stand ready to work with BOR on any effort to secure the needed funding or authorization to see the work done rapidly and safely.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., would work closely with Tester on future efforts to shift the balance of finical responsibility for the diversion to ensure its future, and Gov.-elect, then U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., wrote a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to take action.

The Friday after Drop 5's collapse members of the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group met to discuss the course of action that should be taken.

Manoukian said the matter would need to be solved quickly as winter would be the worst possible time to fix it.

"If we don't start addressing this disaster immediately, the water rationing for irrigators and municipalities will be much worse next year," he said.

Cooney said the state was in contact with the Milk River Joint Board of Control and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and pledged its technical and financial support during this crisis.

By this time, Gianforte, in the U.S. House, and Tester and Daines, in the Senate, had renewed their efforts to pass a bill to reverse the percentage share of the costs of the system's maintenance. Milk River users now pay for about 75 percent of the expenses and the federal government pays about 25 percent.

The bill, introduced in May of 2019, would switch that so the federal government covers about 75 percent of the costs.

St. Mary Working Group Co-Chair Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney said the state is looking at what options they have to help fix the structure.

"Obviously, we want to do everything that we can to make sure we address this situation so that we can get it up and running as quickly as possible," he said.

Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jenn Patrick said Drop 5 wasn't the only problem that needed to be quickly addressed, that Drop 2 was in desperate need of repair as well.

"We thought Drop 2 would fail first," she said. "... It looks the worst. It is the worst. We were on that path. I would say if possible we need to assess it at this point in time."

Davies said he concurred with Patrick and the Drop 2 structure was scheduled to be awarded funds by the Milk River Joint Board of Control, a board overseeing the eight Milk River irrigating districts, for repairs this fiscal year and Reclamation was going to lead the effort to assess it because funding was available to pursue that.

He said the bureau recognizes the seriousness of this issue and is not underestimating the magnitude of this situation.

"We are very much aware that actions at 5 need to include what we're going to do with 2," he said. "We're a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of designs for a fix on a permanent repair. We had actually embarked on efforts to replace Drop 5 in the 2013-2014 time frame and switched to Drop 2 at that time because we deemed 2 to be higher risk of failure."

Davies said they also received cultural collaboration from the Blackfeet Reservation.

He also said the Fresno and Nelson Reservoirs being full would help the situation locally.

Within the next week, a team went on site to observe the concrete drop structure to find either a temporary or long-term fix.

Davies said BOR had been working with the Milk River Joint Board of Control, its engineering consulting firm HDR engineering, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation assessing everything in terms of options.

No decision had yet been made, though.

That week, the Hill County Commission held a meeting with the Milk River Joint Board of Control Thursday to hear an update about the concrete drop structure.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the commission has received several calls from people wanting to buy water out of the Beaver Creek Reservoir.

They decided instead of selling more water from that source, he said, they would rather join hands with the situation that's going on with the St. Mary Diversion to see how they can work with the operation of Fresno Reservoir in releasing water, saving water from Beaver Creek to provide as much water to the irrigators that they can do, as well as sustain flow throughout the winter for the cities.

"It's just trying to develop a working relationship," he said. "... We have about 1,500 acre-feet of water (in Beaver Creek Reservoir) that's spoken for by irrigators right now and there's approximately 1,800 acre-feet of water remaining."

At the time, Patrick was working on finding a contractor for the project and was working with others to evaluate temporary solutions.

Two interim solutions were being considered, she said. One would be piping and one would be running water from Drop 4 down.

After further evaluation neither were deemed to be cost effective considering the minimal effects they would have.

By that time the St. Mary Diversion was completely dry and water had not been diverted into the system since the drop structure collapsed.

By mid-June, Sletten Construction Co. had been selected as the contractor for repairs to Drops 2 and 5 and consturction began on June 22.

Fresno and Nelson reservoirs had above-average storage levels at the time and would be used to provide continued irrigation deliveries into July.

A joint press release by the Bureau of Reclamation and Milk River Joint Board of Control in early June said water shortages and rationing in the communities below Fresno Dam that use the Milk River for their municipal water supply - including Havre, Chinook and Harlem - were not expected.

By this point, Daines sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee asking for consideration and passage of the St. Mary Reinvestment Act.

The next week Daines, R-Mont., announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior had ruled that repairs to the two drop structures qualified as emergency work, which will reduce the cost to the users of the system.

Patrick said at the time that the designation will be a great help.

The designation will allow 35 percent of the total project to repair Drop 2 and Drop 5 to be federally funded before running through the current operation and maintenance contracts allocations, she said. The cost-share split becomes a 51.93 percent from BOR and 48.07 percent from project beneficiaries.

The members of Montana's congressional delegation all praised the decision.

On top of that, and despite complications due to quarantine orders, Patrick said tribal partners had been making great strides in helping with the project.

A week later Department of Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tim Petty and Daines toured the St. Mary Diversion Monday, and both said they found it very informative.

Also, at that time, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks released a report saying fisheries could be affected by the collapses but the effect is still unknown and likely will be for a few months at least.

By late July, significant progress was made on repairs to the diversion.

"We are finally seeing things come together on Drop 2," Patrick said at the time.

In early August, Patrick gave Havre City Council an update about the repairs taking place at the diversion, a project that was now estimated to cost a total of $8 million.

"Drop 2 is moving pretty well, but 5 we're just getting ready to go," she said. "Some things that everyone has seen here in Havre are the flows out of Fresno have stopped or gone down to minimum flows for the cities and then we have 75 in for the tribe."

She said they didn't anticipate any water restrictions at the time.

By mid-August, Patrick said all but one concrete strength test had passed in the 14-days and the other one they are confident will come around very soon, adding that this is better than the projected 28-day strength tests.

In late August a large concrete pour was made at Drop 5.

Patrick said, going forward the plan after fixing Drop 2 and 5 and Drop 1 is shored up, is to work on the diversion dam, although no funding is set for that at the moment.

By mid- September Patrick said Drop 2 was 85 percent done and Drop 5 was well on its way.

Gianforte, in round table with Fresno Area Irrigators, said normally government and fast are words not seen in the same sentence, but the project was proceeding with incredible speed.

"It's been remarkable how much progress has been made and I don't have to tell you how important this project is," he said.

He said he had a good audience in the Natural Resources Committee for the funding bill and been in front of the committee a number of times, advocating and keeping pushing that bill. 

In late September, Patrick announced that the project was nearing completion with the biggest pour to date having gone off without a hitch despite some dicy weather predictions.

Oct. 10 the system started diverting water and the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works was back in business.

"This has been such an unbelievable, and at times overwhelming, project to be a part of," Patrick said. "The teamwork, partnerships and honestly friendships that have been forged in 22 short weeks are incredible."

25/75 or 75/25

Under the original authorization at the start of the last century, most of the funding for the diversion and The Milk River Project comes from users, who now pay for about 75 percent of the costs with the federal government picking up about 25 percent.

Montana's congressional delegation is still trying to shift the funding for the system from about 75 percent provided by the users and 25 percent by the federal government so the federal government picks up about 75 percent of the cost of operation and maintenance.

Patrick has said the cost share has been a struggle and getting that pushed through, but in September hope for this financing shift seemed to take a hit.

Tester said he will continue to try to engage with Sen. Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska, and Sen. Joe Manchin D-W.V., to try to make the shift in what percentage of the funding the users pay happen.

Daines and he have had a bill on this for sometime, he said, and it has been a nonstarter from Murkowski.

Right now, he said, they haven't not been allowed to have hearing on the 75/25 bill.

"I think the 75/25 is a real screw job to the irrigators," he said. "We need to reverse it."

However, Tester said, he doesn't think there is any ill intent here, and suspects that Murkowski is worried about setting a precedent where every Reclamation project could come in and say, "You guys didn't do anything, but an act of Congress put this at 75/25, we want our project at 75/25, too."

Tester and Daines have both discussed the possibility of having the federal government conduct study to determine the users ability to pay, which could reduce the amount the users have to pay.

The idea has gained traction and a request for such a study has since been made.

Tester said regardless of what decisions are made moving forward the funding percentages have to change.