A draft Watershed Plan Environmental Impact Statement is out for the Milk River and St. Mary River Watersheds, and the system’s users are being asked to voice their opinions at a series of upcoming public meetings along the Hi-Line.
The Milk River project has had failures of the aging infrastructure that has halted water to the users.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bureau of Reclamation, the Montana DNRC and the Blackfoot Tribal Business Council have been working since 2023 on how to modernize the St Mary/Milk River System.
The system has been providing water for irrigators, municipalities, tribes and a wildlife refuge for more than 100 years. They have been looking at measures to improve water delivery reliability, decrease agricultural damages to the system’s irrigators and mitigate the risk of infrastructure failure.
The EIS includes three different action alternatives. One of the alternatives includes lining 9 miles of the canal, upgrading a siphon, a drop structure and other improvements. Another is similar, but would reshape the entire 29 miles of the canal as well as other upgrades and improvements. The third alternative is to take no action and have the Milk River Joint Board of Control continue to operate and maintain the existing system in its current condition.
The draft plan also assesses the effects of the three alternatives on the system’s resources include water, environmental and ecological, cultural and historic.
Information from the project says in the past 30 years, the Milk River Basin has faced droughts that have limited water supply to the irrigators with the MRP. These water shortages and limited water supply are exacerbated due to the aging and deteriorated state of the St. Mary Canal and associated infrastructure.
The three public meetings are March 3 at 11:30 am in Havre and 4:30pm in Malta, and March 4 at noon in Browning. The public comment period is open through March 30.
Information on the Milk River Watershed EIS is available at milkriverproject.com/projects/watershed.
