Federal funding will help cover roughly half the cost of rebuilding two areas of the Milk River Project St. Mary Canal. Irrigators say this is a much-needed increase.
July 8 the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation designated the construction of Drop 2 and Drop 5 of the St. Mary Canal as an emergency. The designation will change the cost share of the $8 million construction of the water life-line along the Montana Hi-Line.
Normally the federal government picks up 26 percent of the costs but the emergency designation changes that to 35 percent off the top.
Jennifer Patrick, project manager for the Milk River Joint Board of Control, which is the group of irrigators overseeing the construction, says the changes make the cost share of the remaining 65 percent more manageable to water users.
"So its about a 51 to 49, 52 to 48 split to reclamation project beneficiaries. So it’s huge for us. Normally we’re under a 75 to 25 or type splits. Twenty-five percent is federal government, 75 percent is project stakeholders. So this 50 to 50 is a huge deal for us financially," Patrick said.
That changes the irrigators' costs to about $3.8 million, down from $5.9 million.
Patrick calls their part of the new cost share a heavy lift but she says they are able to tap into state bonding, grants and loans.
Water stopped flowing through the canal in mid-May when Drop 5 collapsed, a concrete structure that moves water from the St. Mary River into the Milk River basin. The structure could not be fixed so the decision was made to replace Drop 5 as well as Drop 2, another at-risk structure.
Patrick said construction is going well although the recent rains have slowed the work on Drop 5. They hope to be able to pour concrete in the next couple of weeks.
The goal is to have the construction completed by the end of summer.
