By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The St. Mary Rehabilitation Working Group held a virtual meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss ongoing work to the Works System and potential legislation to lessen the burden of future projects on irrigation stakeholders.
Milk River Joint Board of Control Project Manager Jennifer Patrick says the current project, which includes repairs to Drops 1, 2 and 5, is expected to be completed in the coming days.
“Drop 2 is done. We’re doing some punch-item lists and small changes and things like that. It has not been seeded, none of the structures have been seeded at this time. Drop 5, it’s pretty exciting. (Thursday) was the last pour on the structure and they also got the cutoff walls. There will be one more cutoff wall (Friday), and then they’ve started on the bottom area and backfilling and everything. On (Friday) we’re pouring the walls on Drop 1. And next week, sometime in the early part of the week, they’ll pour the top portion of the chute. So we’ve got two more pour days in there and we’ve got the structures wrapped up. So dirt work to follow and site grading. We are getting concrete break test at five days so backfilling and everything to happen. So we’re hoping to turn that water on on (October 8th).”
Patrick says the weather at the project site has been mostly cooperative, and the 10-day outlook is close to ideal.
“We’re pretty confident we’re going to (be able to finish up) next week. Site grading and stuff can happen when the weather is not optimal. But probably, maybe a week-and-a-half, two weeks, of the entire five month project the weather hurt us. Other than that, it has been excellent.”
Once water begins flowing down the system, it will take about 10 days to reach Fresno Reservoir, which is currently nearly 27 feet below full pool and at 17.5 percent capacity at 16,200 acre/feet. The hope is that up to 20,000 acre/feet of water will be able to be added to the reservoir before the system shuts off for the winter at the end of the month.
“By the 15th or 16th (of October), we’ll have some smaller flows (into Fresno). Because when we turn on the Diversion Dam, we have to slowly ramp up the canal, make sure everything is fine. We’re not going to just put 600 (cubic feet/second) in. It’s a slow process. It takes about three days to get down to the Diversion Dam (from Sherburne Reservoir). So we’re just working through those schedules and when and how we start water… We won’t run past (October) 31st, we’re getting into some colder temperatures and stuff, but water will still run in the system and into Fresno 10 more days after that at pretty high force.”
The St. Mary Canal and Conveyance Works System provides supplemental irrigation water along the Milk River, as well as water to the Fort Belknap Indian Community, the Blackfeet Nation and many towns along the Hi-Line.
Pending Legislation for Future Projects
Now that the current project is nearly complete, the Rehabilitation Working Group and Montana’s Congressional Delegation are working to pass legislation through Congress that would help alleviate much of the financial burden local stakeholders would face on future projects on the system.
The current agreement puts around 75 percent of the burden of project costs on local stakeholders, and this agreement can only be changed through an act of Congress.
Proposals to flip the cost sharing agreement to put 75 percent of project costs on the federal government have stalled out in Congress, so the Rehabilitation Working Group and Montana’s Delegation are now proposing alternate legislation.
This alternate legislation would have an ability to pay study conducted to decide what the cost share allocation would be.
“We know we need to go in and do the Diversion Dam. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee (in the U.S. Senate) has asked us what is our ability to pay. We don’t have an ability to pay study. The Milk River has never had an ability to pay…we don’t have power, we don’t have all of those things on this project. So there isn’t a number that says ‘you can pay $10 per acre.’ There is nothing like that. So with this legislation, they’ve put it in that the ability to pay study would be completed and then funding on the project would be on the $50 million Diversion Dam, whatever (the study) came in at. We need something that is going to move, and we need to answer the question about what is the ability to pay. We’re all sitting here saying there is no ability to pay. But no matter what paperwork we can give them, the commodity prices, the cattle market. Everything like that. They need it in black and white, that this is the dollar figure. So this is the solution to get there.”
If the legislation is passed, once an ability to pay study is completed, a cost share on future projects on the system, including on the Diversion Dam, with an estimated cost of $52 million, would be set based off that study.
“That study could be applied to the siphons, it could be applied to any of the new construction. A safety of dams project is different, but you also have no ability to pay or whatever it comes back to be in those discussion..”
The ability to pay study would not impact the cost share on ongoing operations and maintenance
The Working Group is hopeful that this legislation could be considered in the lame duck session after the election, but believes it is more likely it will have to wait until sometime in 2021.
