Senate Committee Advances Water Infrastructure Projects
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee has advanced more than $300 million in Montana-specific water projects secured by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework he recently negotiated with a group of his Republican and Democratic colleagues and the White House.
The $311 million Tester spearheaded will help secure water supplies for more than 65,000 people, support agricultural producers and economic development with better water availability, respond to increasingly scarce water with better efficiency and storage systems, and honor the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities to Indian Country. Up to $100 million of that funding will go towards rehabilitating the Milk River Project, which will directly rehabilitate the St. Mary’s Diversion Dam and avert more failures like the drop structures last summer, while improving efficiency and reliability of the overall system.
“When it comes to Montana’s water infrastructure, we’ve been running on our grandparents’ infrastructure for decades — and Congress finally has a shot to do something about it,” Tester said. “Today is the first major step in advancing critical Montana water infrastructure priorities like the Milk River Project that will have an enormous impact on our state’s economy for decades to come. I’m proud to have led negotiations on the framework for this oncein- a-century infrastructure package that has brought together Republicans and Democrats alike to invest in our workers, businesses, and communities. It’s great news that water infrastructure is the first of our priorities to advance out of committee, as we continue working on needed investments in our roads and bridges, airports and railways, broadband and more, to ensure we maintain America’s competitive edge over China.”
Tester’s provisions that were approved by the committee include $211 million for Montana’s authorized rural water projects.
