Irrigation situation improving but still dire

Precipitation in the last few months has raised the level of water available to the St. Mary Diversion and Conveyance Works that supplies water in the Milk River, but the co-chair of the St. Mary Working Group said the amounts available this year probably still will be low.

Co-chair Marko Manoukian, also a Phillips County extension agent, said recent precipitation in the area has marginally improved things for local agriculture producers in general, but it hasn't had much of an effect on irrigators who have been dealt a huge blow in the past few years.

"It's gonna be significant," he said...