Hill County presented update on St. Mary infrastructure projects

St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group Coordinator Dave Peterson provided an update about ongoing projects at the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works to Hill County officials in a presentation Wednesday, where he discussed funding, legislative developments and recent progress.

The diversion is a series of structures that directs water from the St. Mary River into the Milk River then to local cities and irrigators in the area as well as providing water to Canada.

The aging system is in the midst of a large-scale effort to rehabilitate it and the projects are very expensive, but the importance of the system for local municipalities and irrigators especially, as well as the catastrophic failure of a drop structure in 2020, has drawn attention and funding from state and federal governments to address its deficiencies.

In addition to various local problems, he said, the system's inefficiencies mean that the U.S. is only getting about 70 percent of the water that they are allocated under agreements with Canada, and they want that to change.

He said the International St. Mary/Milk River Study Board has been charged with developing a plan and timeline for the various projects which include the Fresno Safety of Dams Project.

Fresno Dam, the most immediately visible project Peterson discussed, is not at immediate risk of failure, but deficiencies are starting to show and the project was undertaken to get ahead of potential problems.

Peterson said on-site construction for the embankment dam modification project began in April, and has primarily focused on drawing as much ground water out of the area as possible, with more than 100 wells producing hundreds of gallons a minute.

He said this water needs to be drawn out so that construction crews can safely excavate and dig into the dam to address deficiencies, and install drains and filters to address leaching.

He said the Tailwater Fishing Access Site below the dam is closed and will remain that way for public safety through the three-plus-year project, but access on the north side is still open.

Unfortunately, Peterson said, the work will require the road across the dam to be completely shut down during part of the project next year.

He said the current estimate for this closure is mid-August, and will likely last well over a month, but the nature of the work makes those details difficult to nail down until they get closer to the date.

Regardless, he said, at least 30-days notice will be given, when the details can be worked out.

He said they understand the traffic that goes over that road and they will reopen as soon as they possibly can, but while that section of work is being done, they absolutely cannot let anyone across.

Among the presentation's attendees was Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, who raised concerns that the project would be going on at the same time as work on Highway 232 in spring of 2025, but Dave Peterson said the dam road will be reopened well before that.

This project, Dave Peterson said, will cost $77 million, with stakeholders, including cities and irrigators, responsible for $11.5 million, with each entity paying an amount proportional to their water usage from the system.

Normally, work on St. Mary requires a 25/75 percent cost share from the federal government, and stakeholders, primarily irrigators, respectively.

He said a recent ability-to-pay study has shown that that is completely unsustainable for the irrigators, so one of his organization's goals is to flip that ratio, which would put it more in line with similar projects.

Another project coming down the pipe is the St. Mary Diversion Dam Replacement Project near Babb.

Peterson said this dam is over 100 years old and is deteriorating significantly, and the problem needs to be addressed soon.

"It's starting to fall apart, rapidly," he said.

He said the dam will need to be completely replaced, and with one that complies with the Endangered Species Act, so they have had to design the replacement to include a way for bull trout to traverse the dam and not interrupt their migrations.

This project will cost $91 million, a cost that would have had to see irrigators pay the 75 percent, if not for the funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden and supported by Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines.

He said tours of the system are being arranged and he recommended that those present join one if they can, before work on this project begins in spring.

The third big project is the St. Mary Canal Modernization Project Watershed Plan, which aims to rehabilitate the canal to more effectively manage water used for agriculture.

This project is still in early stages, with efforts mainly focusing on the development of an environmental impact study which will examine the various ways to modernize the canal and the associated infrastructure in Glacier County.

Peterson said this project will address existing inadequacies, but it will also reduce the risk of infrastructure failures, which could be catastrophic for the St. Mary River, the North Fork of the Milk River, and especially the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

During the presentation Peterson also talked about various funding sources for work on the St. Mary system, including Montana House Bill 6, which provided a $26-million interest-only loan, meaning the principal of the loan doesn't need to be paid back at all.

He said the interest paid will be put into an account that can be used for long-term maintenance and operation of the system, so it's a pretty incredible deal.

The Montana state treasurer also transferred another $26 million from the general fund to Natural Resources Projects State Special Revenue Account, which they can make use of as well.

Another $26 million was provided in Montana House Bill 8 for the replacement of siphons in the system, but that is a normal loan which will need to be paid back over 30 years at 3 percent interest or the rate at which state bonds are sold, whichever is lower.

Another similar loan of $40 million was also made available to the project.

The last major funding source is still very much in the air, however, he said, as it is attached to the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act, containing $275 million in mitigation funds for the Milk River Project, which includes Fresno Dam and Reservoir, as well as the Dodson Pumping Unit and the St. Mary Unit.

The settlement has been more than a decade in the making with collaboration between local, tribal, state and federal governments as well as stakeholders, and is the last water settlement in Montana to be finalized.

The legislation will settle water rights claims, fund infrastructure for clean drinking water and irrigation for Fort Belknap and complete the rehabilitation of the Milk River project in its entirety.

Earlier this year, the compact was attached to this year's National Defense Authorization Act and passed the Senate, but the House passed a version that didn't include it, Peterson said, and it seems unlikely that the compact will stay attached in the final version at this point.

Not long after the meeting, the National Defense Authorization Act was passed, without the compact attached.

If the compact is eventually approved, Peterson said, the working group will have accomplished its primary goal, if not, it will continue the fight to fund this project.

They will also continue efforts to flip the cost share for maintenance, he said, and generally support the project whatever way they can.