Water project freeze could hit much of Hi-Line

A federal investigation into allegations of misuse of money intended for a regional water project could have impacts far beyond the borders of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. in Havre, said he doubts that the Bureau of Reclamation freezing funding for the Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System Project is more than a bump in the road, but if the project were canceled, it would be a problem.

"It would have a significantly negative impact on the region," Tuss said Monday.

The issue is a project that would provide treated water from Lake Elwell at Tiber Dam to some 30,000 people, both on the reservation and off-reservation from Loma north to the Canadian border and from Dutton through Conrad, Cut Bank and Shelby north to Sweetgrass, including Havre and rural water systems in Hill, Chouteau, Liberty Liberty, Pondera, Teton, Glacier and Toole counties.

Some of the water systems that joined the regional effort face problems with shortages in drought years and also water quality issues that would require immense investments in water treatment plants to correct. The plan is to have one central treatment facility, with the various water systems, including Rocky Boy, sharing the cost to maintain and upgrade the facility.

Rob Moog is a member of the regional water authority's executive committee, and of the Hill County Water District Board and the Joplin Water Users Association board president. He said Monday he didn't want to speculate on what had happened or what will happen, although it could have major implications for the county water district, which plans to hook into the regional system once it is completed, he said.

"I'm as concerned about this as anybody, but until we can get to the bottom of it we will stay calm and we will do what needs to be done," Moog said.

Funding put on hold

The Associated Press reported Sunday that the Bureau of Reclamation has frozen funding for the project and has given the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy's reservation until April 29 to show it has permanently fixed problems including accounting issues and apparent conflicts of interest with businesses owned by tribal officials making money off the project.

"While we commend the tribe for restoring the funds soon after the shortage and for self-reporting the issue, this reallocation of funds without consultation is a serious non-compliance matter with potentially long-lasting implications," regional BOR director Paul Ryan said in a March 18 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The bureau controls the funding for the project, authorized in 2002 with a $228 million price tag that has since grown to $361 million.

Bureau of Reclamation officials have confirmed that the agency is investigating the situation, but declined to provide details.

Tribal officials declined to comment to The Associated Press, and tribal attorney Dan Belcourt said in a statement issued Saturday that the Chippewa Cree Tribe is working with the bureau in resolving issues raised in the March 18 letter.

Ken Blatt St. Marks, who was removed as chair of the Chippewa Cree Tribe's governing council last month, has said millions of dollars were missing from the project, and that his cooperating with the federal government in investigating the water project and other financial problems he said he has discovered since taking office last fall was what led to his being removed.

The council, the Chippewa Cree Tribe Business Committee, said he was removed because of "neglect of duty and gross misconduct."

St. Marks has said the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether federal whistleblower laws were violated in his removal.

Widespread impacts

Tuss said he doubts the project will be off track for long — too many people have put in too many hours and too many dollars already have been invested in the effort — and the system will move forward.

While Bear Paw Development has not been directly involved for several years — it contracted with the water authority to provide administrative duties until the authority hired its own executive director — it works directly with many of the communities joining the system, helping them deal with water issues, Tuss said.

A major problem is compliance with federal drinking water quality standards, Tuss said. Using regional systems like the Rocky Boy's/North Central project or the Fort Peck/Dry Prairie system being built to the east, allows small communities to meet those requirements.

Tuss said he believes regional systems like the Rocky Boy's/North Central system will become the standard way to provide quality water to rural parts of the country.

Because of that, along with the already-invested time and money, he said, he believes funding for the the water project will resume.

While piece-meal projects have been done, like in the North Havre rural system, to provide short-term solutions to problems, those projects are intended to hook into the regional system once it is completed, Tuss said, and losing the project would be a serious problem.

"If you think about the livability and sustainability of communities, theres nothing more important than drinking water … ," Tuss said. "Water is at the top of the list of things that are important.

"Should this project not materialize, it would be a pretty sad day for north-central Montana," he added.