Indianz.Com > News > Montana Free Press: Blackfeet Nation responds to water crisis
JoVonne Wagner / Montana Free Press
Blackfeet Tribe and Reclamation Bureau to share response at St. Mary Canal failure
Officials say the failure was caused by the age of the siphon pipes, which were installed more than a century ago.
Monday, June 24, 2024
Montana Free Press
The Blackfeet Tribe and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will work together to address the impacts of this week’s St. Mary Canal siphon failures, tribal officials said last Tuesday.
On June 17, a section of the St. Mary Canal siphon ruptured, resulting in localized flooding in Babb, on the northern part of the Blackfeet Reservation.
The canal is part of the Milk River Irrigation Project, a water system connecting the St. Mary River basin to the Milk River. The project provides irrigation water to 121,000 acres of land in Canada and along Montana’s Hi-Line.
The failure, according to Bureau of Reclamation project manager Steve Darlinton, was caused by the age of the siphon pipes, which were installed more than a century ago, in 1915, and a lack of funding to replace the siphons since.
“It really had pretty minimal changes since construction. We’ve added a couple of expansion joints due to landslides, but it’s never failed, not like this,” Darlinton told Montana Free Press Tuesday. “So it’s all original construction, original steel, original rivets. It’s 110 years old, essentially, and it’s been starting to show its age more and more.”
PUBLIC NOTICE: At the orders of the Blackfeet Tribe, for the safety of all residence, community members and visiting…
Posted by Blackfeet Nation/Blackfeet Tribal Business Council on Monday, June 17, 2024
JoVonne Wagner is a member of the Blackfeet Nation located in Northwestern Montana. She was born and raised on the reservation, where she says she experienced and lived through all the amazing things about her home, but also witnessed all the negative aspects of rez life. Wagner is an alumni of NPR’S Next Generation Radio. JoVonne interned for Buffalo’s Fire and she recently graduated from the University of Montana School of Journalism.
Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
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