-300x200.jpg?t=1)
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (NMB) – The Alliance for the Wild Rockies has filed a lawsuit in US District Court against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over the protection of bull trout on the St. Mary-Milk River Irrigation Project.
The lawsuit cites the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of bull trout, a threatened species, every year due to poor dam design and operation, unscreened diversions into irrigation ditches and river dewatering.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Mike Garrity argues that installing a fish screen would only cost around $100,000 and wouldn’t disrupt the flow of water.
“I don’t know why the Bureau of Rec doesn’t want to do it. It seems to be that they are claiming that the sky is falling. They’re claiming we’re trying to shut down the irrigation project when we’re not. All we’re trying to get them to do is what other places have done and put up a self-cleaning fish screen.”
But St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group co-chair Marko Manoukian says the lawsuit hampers efforts to rehabilitate the 100-year old St. Mary Diversion Dam, and would lead to at least a temporary interruption in the flow of water.
“At some point, to integrate that into the irrigation system, you would have to stop the flow of water. It would be better if we worked on this outside of the irrigation season so that water was not interrupted. But I think the intentions of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is to impact agriculture and the people that also depend on this as a domestic water supply.”
The St. Mary diversion system supplies the Milk River with much of its water.
The Bureau of Reclamation has 60 days to respond to the complaint.
