Full funding to rehabilitate structure unlikely at this point
After hearing about ways $10 million in bonding from the state could be accessed, the group working to rehabilitate the system that provides much of the water in the Milk River each year discussed working on sections of the project instead of trying to push for the full $153 million authorized for it.
“We have tried the whole rehabilitation, and that hasn’t gotten us very far, ” Larry Mires, executive director for the St. Mary Working Group said in Havre Tuesday during the group’s monthly meeting.
The group was formed to coordinate efforts to rehabilitate the St. Mary Diversion, a century-old part of the Milk River irrigation project that diverts water from the St. Mary River into the Milk.
The cost of maintaining and repairing the system always has been billed to the irrigators who use the water. Starting more than 10 years ago, local irrigators and officials began finding ways to rehabilitate the system, saying it is likely to fail completely if “Band-Aid” repairs continue.
Congress authorized the project at a $153 million price tag, but little money has been appropriated so far.
A separate project, finding ways to reduce the system’s impact on the bull trout, listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, also is progressing.
The group heard a presentation from Mary Vandenbosch, the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s coordinator on the St. Mary project, about how it could access the $10 million in bonding authorized by the Legislature if the federal government will allow it to be used as matching funds in the project.
Vandenbosch said that to access that bonding money, the group would need to provide a specific listing of the projects for which it would be used, including where, why and how, and guarantees that it would count for the federal match.
Members of the group said the specific listing already is there — the need to rehabilitate the system is proven, and specifics on how to do so already have been proposed and are being refined.
But Mires said the group may want to reconsider its approach. With the current situation on the federal budget, receiving even a significant portion of the $153 million seems unlikely.
If the $10 million in bonding could be used as a 25 percent match, and the federal government would provide the matching $30 million, that could be used for significant projects, Mires said.
He added that the three goals of the group also need to be considered in all of its plans and in what pieces would be selected if the project is split up.
The primary goal is the rehabilitation of the system, with the secondary goal providing benefits to the Blackfeet Tribe, on whose reservation the system sits, he said.
Mires said the group also needs to start examining its third goal — preventing silt from eliminating the storage in Fresno Reservoir west of Havre, also a part of the Milk River irrigation project.
Mires said that forecasts that silt would eliminate the capacity of the reservoir in 25 years or so need to be addressed.
Mires said other work being done also is reducing the final cost of the project. The work on the diversion dam and headwaters is a separate project, and will be funded separately. Other work, such as replacing a bridge, also has been done separately.
