Senators push for action on St. Mary Diversion bill

Montana's U.S. senators continue to push for funding for - and changes on how to fund - the system that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year, likely almost all of the water flowing in the river this year.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., both spoke during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Water and Power Wednesday on their St. Mary's Reinvestment Act, which will authorize $52 million to rehabilitate the St. Mary's Diversion Dam and require U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to use an ability-to-pay study on what water uses can afford to pay and set the cost share for the project based on that study.

"Inflation has driven up construction costs and the severe drought has made it all the more important we pass my bill this year. As you can see from the map behind me, the Milk River Project is located in the part of Montana experiencing severe drought," Daines said in a press release. "During dry years like the ones we've been experiencing, the project supplies up to 90 percent of the water needed for the Milk River Basin which is why it's been coined the 'Lifeline of the Hi-Line.' I'm grateful for this hearing today and would urge quick passage."

"The St. Mary's Diversion Dam is a cornerstone of northern Montana's agricultural economy and way of life that irrigates over 121,000 acres, provides water for four towns, and serves a critical role in the water rights for two Tribal communities," Tester said in a press release. "(The St. Mary's Reinvestment Act) builds on the $100 million I secured in the bipartisan infrastructure bill for rehabilitating the Milk River Project by providing targeted funding specifically for the St. Mary's Diversion Dam, one of the highest-priority parts of the project. ... In Montana, we know that water is life. And it's a testament to how universal that is when you see the entire Montana delegation united behind this bill."

Tester authored and introduced the bill, with Daines joining as an original cosponsor. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., introduced the bill in the House of Representatives.

Earlier this year, Tester announced $85 million for the St. Mary's Diversion and Headworks as a part of up to $100 million he secured for the Milk River Project through his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Tester negotiated and helped pass into law last year. This funding will be allocated through the Bureau of Reclamation 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 the IIJA that will provide up to $100 million to rehabilitate the Milk River Project, and he was the only member of Montana's Congressional delegation to support the legislation.

The St. Mary Diversion was one of the first projects the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to build after its creation in 1902, with the project authorized in 1903. It 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, built to provide water for irrigation, often provides half or more of the water that flows through the Milk River each year, as much as 90 percent in some drought years. Before it was built, the river dried up in the fall of 6 of 10 years.

It comprises Sherburne Dam, which stores water in Lake Sherburne on Swift Current Creek; a dike that diverts the water into St. Mary River, the diversion dam that diverts water into the conveyance works, then 29 miles of canals, gigantic metal siphons and the concrete drop structures that drop the water into the North Fork of the Milk River. Most of the system is on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The system took years to complete, often using heavy equipment drawn by teams of horses. Much of the conveyance works was completed by 1915.

The water flows through the North Fork of the Milk into Canada before returning to Montana and eventually flowing into the Missouri River near Nashua below Fort Peck Reservoir. It provides water for irrigators in the Milk River Valley as well as municipal water for communities along the river including Havre, Chinook and Harlem along with providing water to the northern part of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

The project was authorized as an irrigation system with funding for its operation and maintenance primarily coming from the irrigators using it.

As repair costs rose, the system was patched together for decades, and, more than 20 years ago, users began to warn that if major rehabilitation wasn't done soon, the system would fail, which would be catastrophic to the region.

That failure came in May 2020 when Drop 5 all but disintegrated, which prompted organizations at the local, state and federal levels, to spend the next few months getting the drop repaired relying on emergency funding.

The project was considered a massive success due to the short time in which it was completed, an accomplishment credited to effective communication and coordination between the organizations involved.

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.

That catastrophic failure occurred in one location 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.