More cash proposed for rural water project

A project that will provide treated drinking water for Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and a large chunk of north-central Montana has more money proposed for its completion.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester announced he secured $4.8 million in an appropriations bill for the Rocky Boy’s/North Central Montana Regional Water System, which will treat water from Lake Elwell at Tiber Reservoir south of Chester. The treated water will be transported to Rocky Boy and regions off the reservation from Loma to Havre and the North Havre Water District in northern Hill County and west to the Rocky Mountain Front, including the Hill County Water District and Chester west to Cut Bank and Conrad.

Tester, who also once again is sponsoring a bill to provide guaranteed funding for rural water projects, said he is committed to finding funding for the projects.

“Water is life,” Tester said in a release about the funding. “This investment is another step towards the completion of Montana’s rural water projects that will provide tens of thousands of farmers, ranchers, families and businesses in north-central and northeast Montana with reliable access to clean water.”

Last year, Tester secured $4.8 million in the same Senate Energy and Water appropriations bill and also secured another $15 for the Rocky Boy’s/North Central project from Bureau of Reclamation.

The project, which came from the Chippewa Cree Tribe’s water compact with Montana and the federal government, was authorized by Congress in 2002 but has not received steady funding. Construction has proceeded in a piecemeal fashion, with funding obtained used to build sections that can be added to the system once it is complete. Work on the water treatment plant at Tiber started last fall.

Tester, who is facing multiple candidates in his bid for re-election this year, has joined Montana’s other U.S. senator, Republican Steve Daines, and other senators in pushing for a separate set of funding for rural water projects.

Four Republicans, state Auditor Matt Rosendale, state Sen. Al Olszewski, businessman Troy Downing and retired judge and former legislator Russ Fagg are facing off in the primary for the chance to challenge Tester in the general election, along with Libertarian Rick Breckenridge and Green Party candidate Steve Kelly.

Tester wrote the Authorized Rural Water Projects Completion Act, a bipartisan bill that will invest $80 million annually for the next 20 years to complete the construction of Montana’s rural water projects, as well as $35 million annually for 20 years for enacted and future Indian water rights settlement bills.

Tester revived the bill, which he previously co-sponsored when it was drafted by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., in 2012.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is a co-sponsor of the bill along with five other senators, all Democrats, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Heidi Hitkamp of North Dakota, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Tina Smith of Minnesota.