St. Mary Diversion sees $85M more on the way

A project more than two decades in the making finally has some significant funding, with Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announcing Wednesday that $85 million is going to repairs and rehabilitation on the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works.

"This is a critical, targeted investment in the Milk River Project that will update essential water infrastructure for our state and provide certainty and economic growth for communities, producers, and future generations in north-central Montana," Tester said in a release. "I worked for months to negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, and I personally fought for this funding because, as a third-generation farmer from Big Sandy, I know how critical this project is to our state's economy. I'm going to keep pushing until the entire Milk River Project is repaired and rehabilitated so Montanans have access to the water they need for years to come."

The St. Mary Diversion, one of the first projects the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to build when the bureau was created at the start of the last century, diverts water from the St. Mary River on the border of Glacier National Park through a system of dams, dikes, siphons and canals across the Blackfeet Indian Reservation into the North Fork of the Milk River. The water then flows into Canada before returning to Montana.

The system typically provides half or more of the water in the Milk River. In drought years like last year, and what appears to be coming this year, it can supply up to 90 percent of the water in the river.

Before the diversion was built, the Milk River dried up by the fall in 6 of 10 years.

The system has been patched together for decades. The Milk River Project, which includes the diversion, was authorized as an irrigation project, so irrigators using the water had to pay for most of the upkeep and repairs. Major repairs and rehabilitation usually could not be funded.

More than 20 years ago, a coalition of Milk River water users started pushing for repairs to the project before catastrophic failure occurred. The state formed the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group in 2003 to push for repairs and rehabilitation of the system.

A taste of their warnings came true in 2020, when the last concrete drop structure where the conveyance works flows into the Milk River collapsed, requiring shutting the system down. A major - highly successful - effort to get the structure done by fall was added to scheduled work on other drop structures that had problems.

Funding through a bipartisan effort

Tester was able to get funding that could be used on the system into the bipartisan infrastructure bill - the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - which passed last year.

Tester was one of the bipartisan group of senators - he was one of the core group of five Democrats and five Republicans - who crafted the bill and he worked to include funding for a water project like the St. Mary Diversion.

While he could not earmark money for a specific project, the bill used parameters for $100 million in funding for a water project, such as having been completed by 1915 and having experienced catastrophic failure in the last two years.

While Montana's other federal lawmakers, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Matt Rosendale, both Republicans, said they supported funding for St. Mary Diversion, they both voted against the bill, including saying it increased the federal debt too much.

The total infrastructure bill was for $1.2 trillion in spending.

Tester's release said the funding will be allocated through BOR and used for the St. Mary's Canal diversion and headworks replacement project, which will include a large fish bypass structure to mitigate impacts to bull trout.

The first round of funding, $2.5 million, was announced in January and will be used for planning and project design in 2022.

Tester directly negotiated and wrote the provision of his legislation that will provide up to $100 million to rehabilitate the Milk River Project, the release said, and in December 2020, he urged BOR Commissioner Camille Touton to make the St. Mary's diversion a top priority and get the resources out the door as quickly as possible.

Praise for funding finally coming through

Members of the St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group praised the funding being set, saying it is not a moment too soon, with some adding that it could still be not early enough.

"It's great news for the Hi-Line, and we cannot thank Sen. Tester enough for giving us this opportunity to fix a critical piece of the infrastructure, while providing fish passage to the bull trout," working group member and Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jennifer Patrick said this morning. "A year like this year, with the drought looming, only highlights how important this project is to the entire Hi-Line. Without the St. Mary water transfer, which is taking place right now, the Milk River Basin and reservoirs would be dry. So, for us, this is incredible but just the start of the over $300 million full rehabilitation."

Phillips County Extension Agent Marko Manoukian, who co-chairs the working group, said it is a good start and he hopes to get more funding soon.

"It's greatly appreciated," he said this morning. "I wish it was a little bit sooner, no doubt, but we are heading in the right direction and are looking for additional funding for siphons and the shape of canal," which he noted also are all more than 100 years old.

He said his understanding is the actual construction won't start until 2024, with BOR now focusing on work on Fresno Dam, which also is part of the Milk River Project.

The work at St. Mary's Diversion will be extremely important, he added.

"It is huge," he said "It will be a great boost to the economy, and we are hopeful we can make it to 2024 without any catastrophic failures."

He also noted that the region is headed for a short water year, "which just underpins the importance of the diversion."

Greg Jergeson of Chinook, also a working group member, said the impacts of repairing the diversion go far beyond the irrigators.

The Milk River also supplies water to Havre, Chinook, Harlem and the Fort Belknap Agency as well as providing recreation in the river and reservoirs like Fresno west of Havre and Nelson near Malta.

He said he hopes the work begins soon enough.

"That diversion up there simply cannot last many more years, and we'll be in real trouble if the facility fails before it gets built," Jergeson said.

He added that his understanding is that, due to the short construction season and the remote location of the work site, the project will take three years.

"Even then, during that period, there is a risk it could fail, so we need to get going as soon as we can," he said.

He also praised Tester for succeeding in finally getting some funding.

"I think its wonderful, and Tester needs to get a pat on the back every time we can for what he succeeded in doing without a lot of help from all of his colleagues," Jergeson said.