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 Proje...