State money brings St. Mary siphon repairs close to fully funded

An influx of money from the state of Montana has covered the costs to irrigators for repairing the system that brings much of the money to the Milk River each year.

The state announced early in November that a deal had been reached with the Milk River Joint Board of Control, the board that oversees the irrigation projects along the Milk River in this part of Montana, to provide at $26 million loan to the board to use in repairing the siphons in the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that suffered catastrophic failure June 17.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the Milk River Project, said last week that the $26 million loan, along with a $6.2 million grant from the state, will cover the majority of the costs to the irrigators to replace the siphons and BOR is working on acquiring funds for the remaining costs.

BOR continues to target the end of August next year to complete the repairs.

BOR has said that the water supply in storage should be enough to meet the needs of the towns that use the Milk River for their municipal water supply -Havre, Chinook and Harlem -but the irrigation season, which was cut short this year, will likely end by June of next year, when the natural runoff decreases.

A problem more than 100 years in the making

The system, which typically provides 60 percent or more of the water in the Milk River -close to 90 percent or more in drought years -is more than 100 years old. It was one of the first projects BOR was authorized to build after the bureau was established in 1902.

The system of dams, canals, siphons and drop structures was built over a couple of decades, starting on the edge of Glacier National Park and then crossing the Blackfeet Indian Reservation until 29 miles of the conveyance works drops the water into the North Fork of the Milk River, which then flows into Canada before returning to Montana.

The system was built using construction equipment drawn by teams of horses, and was completed more than 100 years ago.

The system also includes a number of reservoirs including Fresno Reservoir west of Havre and Nelson Reservoir near Malta.

The system, created to provide irrigation water, originally was billed completely to the irrigators -and to towns charged for water withdrawals, although primarily to the irrigators - for operation and maintenance.

That was shifted in the past two decades with the federal government taking up a small part of the cost, but the lack of funds for major repairs and upgrades left the diversion and conveyance works band-aided together for most of the last half-century or more.

The irrigation authority started issuing warnings some three decades ago that major repairs and upgrades were needed or the system that supplies most of the water in the Milk -the river ran dry six out of 10 years before the diversion and conveyance works were completed -could suffer a catastrophic failure and shut down.

The state formed a working group, with the lieutenant governor a statutory co-chair, shortly after the turn of this century and the group has been working ever since to find funding for the rehabilitation.

And the warnings of catastrophic failure first came true in 2020, when a concrete drop structure in the system at the end of the conveyance works right where it is dropped into the North Fork of the Milk River washed out and collapsed. That shut down the system supplying the water to the milk.

Local, state, tribal and federal partners along with Montana's congressional delegation scrambled to get funding and get repairs started almost immediately. That failure -including replacing another of the five drop structures that already had been scheduled for replacement -was repaired by fall and the system was back in operation.

Then in June of this year, one of the massive siphons that carry water over hills in the conveyance works failed, and the water rushing from the failure washed out the second siphon in the pair taught carry water through that part of the system.

The system once again was shut down and soon the Milk River west of Fresno Reservoir was dry.

Work underway while funding was sought

Work began on the siphons, looking at the damage and what needed to be done almost immediately. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., pushed for emergency funding to be used for the initial stages, and a bill he sponsored, co-sponsored by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., that would have provided funding for the complete repair of the system, was quickly passed out of the Senate.

That bill, the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlements Act, includes funding to repair the diversion and conveyances works, which also provide water to residents on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

It had been including in an appropriations bill before the siphons failed, but was stripped out of the bill by the Republican majority in the House.

The bill that passed the Senate, which has a companion bill by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., that was heard in a committee, has languished in the House.

Another project, to replace the diversion dam that diverts water from the St. Mary River into the conveyance system that takes it to the Milk River, is underway. Tester included funding for that project in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act he helped negotiate and an $85 million project to replace the dam was awarded to a Montana company, which has begun the work.

New funding fills irrigator's share

The funding for the siphon replacement set up in the agreement between the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Milk River Joint Board of Control is set up as a loan, with no payments required at the moment on the principal.

Interest payments, set up at $3 per irrigated acre, will go into a fund that will be used to provide maintenance and repairs on the system. The fee means that every $1,000 acres irrigated will require an additional payment of $3,000 from the irrigator into the maintenance fund.

Loan versus grant

Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, and Rep. Paul Tuss, D-Havre, wrote the original bill in the last Legislature that provided the funding.

The original bill provided the state funding as a grant to make repairs on the system. Tuss said that, when it came back out of the Senate, it had been modified to make the disbursal a loan. He said he would have preferred a grant to reduce expense to the irrigators, but having the interest payments go back to the maintenance fund will help fund the project for decades.

"It's wonderful to see things progressing, and I have to give all the credit in the world to the folks working on this project right now," he said.

Jennifer Patrick, project manager for the Milk River Joint Board of Control, said that, while the current mechanism isn't as straightforward as the proposed grant, it provides long-term benefits for the irrigation districts by setting aside the $3 per acre into a dedicated Milk River Maintenance Account.

"These funds are intended to support future operations and maintenance efforts, ensuring the sustainability of the system and helping to prevent the recurring crises we face today,"Patrick said. "This funding structure, developed by the Governor's Office Budget Director, takes a proactive approach to addressing long-term needs. It requires the Milk River Joint Board of Control to create and implement a comprehensive operations and maintenance plan before accessing the funds."

Patrick said that the requirement is a significant step toward breaking the cycle of reacting to emergencies and instead establishing a reliable, forward-thinking system.

'The $3 per acre cost will undoubtedly place a financial burden on current irrigators, but it comes with substantial benefits," she said. "In addition to a more reliable water source, further funding or the passage of the Fort Belknap Indian Water Rights Compact by Congress could increase water availability, improving the productivity and value of these lands.

She said the normal drying up of the Milk River before the diversion was created would bring irrigation along this part of the the Hi-Line to a halt.

"This would not only devastate agricultural operations but also threaten wildlife habitats and jeopardize access to drinking water for communities in the region,"Patrick said. "This funding is vital to safeguarding irrigation operations, preserving ecosystems, and securing a dependable water supply for generations to come."