Tester provides support but no clear path for funding St. Mary/Milk River project

On September 4 the St Mary Working Rehabilitation Working Group (SMRWG) had a conference call with Senator Tester regarding funding for the irrigation project. Tester repeatedly commented that he is willing to push whatever the irrigators need legislatively.

Tester noted that the Joint Board of Control (JBC) in coordination with the state of Montana and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) have provided funding of repairs to Drops 2 and 5. The focus is now on larger cost items such as diversion dams and siphons. He commented that with recent deficit spending by Congress of $3 trillion, money is still tight. Senator Tester commented that Chairwoman Murkowski and ranking member Senator Manchin, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee (ENR), are not supportive of our current request for a change in the cost allocation to 75% federal and 25% local for construction projects.

There was a discussion about the ability to pay study to be conducted by BOR to demonstrate the ability of irrigators to pay for construction costs. The study could take 6-9 months and cost $100,000. The SMRWG has been directed to not include operation and maintenance as part of the request for cost allocation change. It was requested to just have construction as part of any bill in the Senate ENR Committee.

The consensus of the SMRWG was to ask Tester’s staff to draft a new bill, requesting construction of a new diversion structure and possibly a siphon and include a request for an ability to pay study by the BOR. The longer we wait the higher the cost of construction is. In a 2006 engineering study, the cost of the St Mary and Halls Coulee siphons was $32,000,000 and $14,500,000 respectively. Now BOR estimates the St. Mary siphon at $41,000,000 and Halls Coulee at $18,500.000.

When a bill draft is provided the SMRWG will meet to review if before a hearing is requested. Senator Tester said again he is willing to “push” whatever the irrigators are wanting to accomplish legislatively.

With rising construction costs and only 0.08 Cubic feet per second flowing in the Milk River at the eastern crossing, time is of the essence. The BOR will be transferring 30,000acre-feet out of Sherburne reservoir to create room for snowmelt in 2021. Hopefully, the drop structures will be completed by the end of September 2020 or the water will be dumped into St Mary River and flow to Canada.