Montana Congressional Delegation Introduces St. Mary’s Reinvestment Act

WASHINGTON, Mont. (NMB) – Montana’s Congressional delegation formally introduced the St. Mary’s Reinvestment Act on Thursday in the nation’s capitol.

The bill was authored and introduced by Senator Jon Tester and cosponsored by Senator Steve Daines. Congressman Matt Rosendale introduced the bill in the House.

As written, the bill would authorize $52 million to rehabilitate the St. Mary’s Diversion Dam and require the Bureau of Reclamation to use an ability-to-pay study to reset the cost sharing agreement for the project.

The current cost sharing agreement places around 75 percent of the burden on local stakeholders and the remaining percentage on the federal government.

The St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Working Group met last week and agreed to get a head start on the ability to pay study, which will figure out how much water users can afford for the project and will likely take at least six months to complete.

The results of the study will be binding, although it is not clear at this time if the new cost share allocation would roll over to future projects on the system outside of the Diversion Dam. Having the new cost share apply to other projects on the system would likely take a separate act of Congress.