By Josh Margolis
CUT BANK, Mont. (NMB) – With work now complete on the most immediately needed repairs to the St. Mary’s Canal and Conveyance Works System, attention is turning to rehabilitating the rest of the System before another catastrophic failure.
The next part of the system that agencies are looking to focus on is the Diversion Dam at the head of the canal. This project is estimated to cost over $50 million. To obtain the funding to complete it, the cost sharing agreement on the project will likely need to change.
The current agreement puts around 75 percent of the burden of project costs on local stakeholders.
Due to the approval of an emergency maintenance request that was approved after the catastrophic failure of Drop 5, the cost share for the just-completed $8 million project is around 51 percent on federal government, and 49 percent local funds.
However, changing the cost sharing agreement for future projects not declared emergency maintenance can only be done through an act of Congress and with assistance from the federal government.
“As we continue our work to ensure that the St. Mary’s Canal can continue to serve as the lifeblood for north-central Montana, we must work together to find a solution that works for everybody,” says Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney, Co-Chair of the St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Working Group. “There are many shared needs for this system…Moving forward with the rehabilitation of this system can only being done by coming together, and it cannot be done by one entity along, or by forcing one partner to bear most of the burden. The cost of this project means we will need assistance from the federal government, and the support of Congress to get there. I urge all of us to commit to finding common ground again, to find a way to fully address this for the irrigators and the people of Montana that depend on this water supply.”
Current potential legislation would have an ability to pay study conducted to decide what the cost share allocation would be. And as Malta Area Irrigator and President of the Milk River Joint Board of Control Wade Jones puts it, Hi-Line irrigators simply don’t have the money to pay for massive projects.
“A (cost share) almost has to happen for us still to survive,” said Jones. “The Diversion Dam, it’s no secret, that’s probably the next thing on the list. As irrigators, we’re able to keep up with day-to-day maintenance. It’s the big projects that are out of our reach because of the quality of crops that we grow along the Milk River.”
This realization, as well as the need to continue fixing vulnerable areas is shared by many, including Department of Natural Resource and Conservation Director John Tubbs.
“Think about how we’re going to put our shoulders into the next project on the St. Mary’s. We don’t want this water supply to fail ever again. We’re going to get ahead of that curve and we’re going to start at the Diversion Dam and Congressman, Senators, if we can get that out of this Senate, I’d be happy. We’ve still got a few days to go. Let’s put some money into the St. Mary’s!”
So although water is running through the system again and back down into the Milk River, the story of the rehabilitation of the St. Mary’s is far from done.
