Milk River Joint Board of Control Meets After Siphon Fails in Babb

On Monday, June 17, the Milk River Project, a 110-year-old structure that provides irrigation to several towns on the Hi-Line experienced a catastrophic failure.

Last Thursday, June 20, during a regularly scheduled meeting, the Milk River Irrigation Project Joint Board of Control, was able to take some action to help give local irrigators intel.

"The Milk River does not flow for six out of ten years without the water transferred by the St. Mary Project," Marko Manoukian of the St. Mary's Rehabilitation Group told the PCN.

The project provides water to 140,000 acres of land, over 18,000 residents drink from it, over 700 farms, and 729 river miles of wildlife habitat, according to the Milk River Project's website.

The water irrigated from the project also feeds 1,000,000 people by way of agriculture.

Close to 70 were present for the meeting held in the Great Northern Lodge Room and close to thirty more were present via internet video conference call. This included irrigators from as far west as Chinook to as far east as Glasgow.

Representatives from several government officials were also present including Representative Ryan Zinke, Representative Matt Rosendale, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Mike Lang, and HD 28 Representative Paul Tuss. Perri Jacobs, candidate for Senate District 16 was also present.

Ultimately, in an effort to conserve water for municipal use through de-mossing, the Joint of Board Control districts agreed to shut off water supply on Tuesday, June 25 until July 8.

"They are going to take a pause during the summer to allow the moss that builds up in the canal system to de-moss," Manoukian explained. "They are going to shut off for ten days."

After the shut off, the districts have agreed upon ranchers getting 1.5 acre feet per acre to irrigate for the rest of the summer.

The flow from Fresno will start ramping down as Fresno reaches an elevation of 2,560. The flow will stop at 2550 elevation.

After August 15, water will still flow to the towns of Havre, Chinook, and Harlem. The Blackfoot Tribe will be allotted 75 CFS until Mid-September.

Malta's will continue to draw from lower water levels over the winter.

The siphons that failed, transfer water from Lake Sherburne and the St. Mary River feeds Fresno Reservoir which Havre, Chinook, Harlem, Dodson, and Malta use. The water then heads down the Milk River to the Nelson Reservoir which provides water to Saco, Hinsdale, and Glasgow.

Right now, the Fresno is 85.1% full and without flow from Sherburne due to the pipe failure in Babb, Fresno faces the possibility of being depleted in 2025.

There is time, but the need to fix the siphon is urgent.

"If the siphons aren't repaired and we have an open winter, You won't be able to get a cup of coffee or flush the toilet in Havre,

Chinook, or Harlem," Manoukian said.

Malta's well water goes up during irrigation season and going a long time without the help from Lake Sherburne would not be good, according to Manoukian.

The meeting was highlighted by comments from local irrigators and comments from the Bureau of Reclamation.

Malta's Sonia Young asked if since the structure was built in the 1900's, if there was a plan in place to update the structure, or if they waited until the first failures of drop 2 and five in 2020.

"There have been quite a few repairs over the long history of this structure," Christopher Gomer of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation answered. "From barrel replacements over certain sections, expansion joint replacement, constantly welding up repairs."

"We react to what we can afford today and at the time," he continued.

He said that the drops, diversion, and the siphons have been identified as criticality of infrastructure on St. Mary in the early 2000's.

The issue of replacement has been on the minds of the Bureau for years, and with irrigators being fiscally responsible for about 75% of cost and repairs, it hasn't been an easy thing to solve because it affects the bills of current and future farmers and ranchers that rely on the irrigation system.

"We just don't have the funding to do it," Gomer said of the replacement project.

One thing that will help toward the project in it's entirety, is the $100 Million awarded to the project through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which was passed in 2021. The first round of payment was $2,500,000 for planning and design in 2022. Recently an $88 million contract was awarded to NW Construction to complete the St. Mary Diversion Dam Replacement project.

With the potential replacement so far away, it is crucial that funding and material is secured for the siphon repair so irrigators can fully utilize the Milk River next spring.

The Bureau of Reclamation and others associated with the Milk River Project were unable to provide a full analysis on the repairs, but they were scheduled to check out the site earlier this week.

Manoukian, who has been a part of the St. Mary's Rehabilitation Working Group since its formation in Havre in 2003.

"We had three main goals that we were working on," Manoukian said.

The first that was mentioned was at the bottom of the list; Restore Fresno to its original capacity. At that time, the Fresno Reservoir had lost a third of its capacity.

The second was to find mutual benefits with the water with the Blackfeet Reservation.

"The first thing was to fix the St. Mary's before it suffered catastrophic failure," Manoukian said. "The warning shot was in 2020 when we lost Drop 5. There is a picture of the siphon with a tire over it and they called it the Babb car wash. Early on we talked about materials to fix a hole, well, there is a big hole now. We had talked about what could be another catastrophic failure; The siphon coming apart and eight feet of water cascading over the hillside. Our worst fear has come true."

Russ Osmundson asked if they were planning to only replace the siphons that failed, or if they would replace all siphons in the project.

"They are the same age, the same materials and the same issues," Gomer said. "If we are going to be in the business of replacing siphons, we need to replace all siphons."

Jennifer Patrick of the Milk River Joint Board confirmed the response.

"We have made that our ask," Patrick said. "If we can declare an emergency, just like we did on Drop 5 and Drop 2. If we can combine replacing both siphons."

Gerald Wagner, Director of the Blackfeet Tribal Nation Environmental Programs also spoke during public comment.

"We have been working around the clock with the Bureau of Reclamation in trying to evaluate the damages that has happened in the Babb area," Wagner said. "Our office was heavily involved in the Drop 5 catastrophe. It was there that they should've woke up and said, we really have to do something about this system that has been bandaided to death.

Wagner said that the meeting, and seeing everyone in the GN Lodgeroom at the meeting was eye opening for him.

"Coming over here and listening to everybody and seeing how many people are really impacted by the decline of the water, we have got to band together, speak as one voice, and say that there shouldn't be any holdup in congress or the senate," Wagner said. "The Hi-Line is important. Everybody needs access to water."

The Milk River Joint Board of Control will be holding a Town Hall Meeting at the Tin Cup in Malta on July 9, at 6 p.m.