(Havre) During Thursdays St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Working Group Meeting, it was announced by co-chair of the group Marko Manoukian that key parts of the repair project are fully paid for without any expenses needed to be covered by irrigators.
“For the components they have provided funding for at this point in time yes, on the diversion structure and the siphons we do not have to pay for any of that repair. We did an ability to pay study and its available on the Milk River website and it shows that we don’t have the capacity as irrigators and agri-producers to pay for a large construction project”
The projects original cost estimate was around 70 million dollars, and the typical agreement for the Milk River Project is that a large percentage of each expenditure taken on by the Project is covered by the irrigators that it serves; this funding will eliminate millions in costs from being taken on by the users of that water.
