After criticism, federal officials approve Eastern Montana irrigation project
By Tom Lutey
Source: Billings Gazette
Image by Larry Mayer/Gazette Staff
Eastern Montana farmers will not go without irrigation water this summer now that federal officials have greenlighted Yellowstone River diversion work.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will allow the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project to use boulders to rebuild a century-old wooden weir that diverts water to 55,000 farm acres between Glendive and Sidney. The diversion feeds 400 miles of canals before flowing back into the Yellowstone near the river’s confluence with the Missouri River.
Farms that grow everything from sugar beets to malt barley and soybeans on irrigated land depend on the water.
Two weeks ago, federal Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps officials testified before a Senate panel that a permit might not be issued until fall, far too late for Eastern Montana crops. The inaction angered Montana Sens. Jon Tester, a Democrat, and Republican Steve Daines.
Credit the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for getting the rock work permitted, said James Brower, Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project manager. The Irrigation Project needed a permit in time to begin placing boulders in the river by mid-July.
“I just sent out two letters of thanks, one giving the bureau the credit they deserved because they really stepped up to the plate on this,” he said.
Brower said Tester and Daines were also key to getting the project permitted.
Rock-piling has been a necessary chore for more than a century to keep water flowing to area farms. Massive ice flows on the Yellowstone scour the weir every winter, knocking the protective crown of boulders from its top. Without the rocks, it’s likely the water wouldn’t flow into the irrigation system in late summer when river levels are low.
The permit was placed in doubt two years ago as federal agencies worked on a new diversion project to save pallid sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that biologists say needs a path beyond the diversion weir so it can procreate.
The sturgeon project involved a building a miles long slow-moving side stream for the sturgeon to navigate around the weir. Wildlife groups filed a lawsuit arguing that the bypass might not work. The lawsuit slowed the bypass project, as well as the permitting the irrigation district’s rock piling.
This week’s approval of the rock piling comes with a Dec. 31 expiration date. That should be enough time to see irrigators through the construction of the bypass, Brower said.
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The Montana Stockgrowers Association, a non-profit membership organization, has worked on behalf of Montana’s cattle ranching families since 1884. Our mission is to protect and enhance Montana ranch families’ ability to grow and deliver safe, healthy, environmentally wholesome beef to the world.