(WASHINGTON, D.C. ) – Montana Republican United States Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy, as well as Montana Republican Congressmen Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing sent a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requesting funding to repair the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal.
The said in the letter “We write to urge full and fair consideration of the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal of the Milk River Project (Project) in northwestern Montana to be an authorized recipient of funding as appropriated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, titled under “Water Conveyance and Surface Water Storage Enhancement.”
The Honorable Doug Burgum
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Dear Secretary Burgum:
We write to urge full and fair consideration of the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal of the Milk
River Project (Project) in northwestern Montana to be an authorized recipient of funding as
appropriated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, titled under “Water Conveyance and Surface
Water Storage Enhancement”.
When the Canal was originally constructed in 1915, it had the capacity to divert up to 850 cubic
feet per second (cfs). However, due to its age, capacity has declined to about 600 cfs. This
reduction in capacity is leading to a loss of more than 70,000-acre feet that’s flowing across the
border into Canada every year. As a headwater state, these water losses are also felt beyond
Montana, where water should be flowing across the west and as far south as Fresno, California.
While two out of the five Drops have been successfully replaced, failure of the remaining three is
imminent. As you may know, Drop 5 failed in 2020 and the Siphon failed in 2025, leading to the
complete loss of the irrigation season for local and regional producers and resulting in hundreds
of millions of dollars lost. The failure of any three remaining Drops could once again lead to
catastrophic failure and severe economic loss.
Funding under “Water Conveyance and Surface Water Storage Enhancement” was designated
specifically for “construction and associated activities that restore or increase the capacity or use
of existing conveyance facilities constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation.” The current
fragility of the system speaks to the dire need to restore this key infrastructure to protect our
precious water resources.
Thank you for considering my request and we look forward to continuing to partner with you to
restore the entire St. Mary Canal and Conveyance Works system.
Sincerely,
Steve Daines Ryan Zinke
United States Senator Member of Congress
Tim Sheehy Troy Downing
United States Senator Member of Congress
Cc: Scott Cameron, Acting Commissioner, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
