Water will run through Milk River again after repairs to U.S. canal finish up

Water in southern Alberta's Milk River could soon be flowing at full capacity again, after it was on the verge of drying up completely.

Theriver, which weaves and winds its way from Montanathrough southern Alberta and back into the United States, was interrupted upstream in May due to asystem failurein the diversion system, which brought water levels in the river way down.

However, due to lots of rainfall this summer and quick completion time on repairs, things are looking up.

Tim Romanow,executive director of theMilk River Watershed Council of Canada, says reconstruction is nearly complete on part of a canal in Montana that diverts water into Alberta.

"There's a bit more earthworkthat needs to be done on the project, but they're getting there. They can see the finish line finally."

He sayswater should be flowing by next week, dependingon the weather.

On the canal, Romanow says, water is diverted through a 47-kilometre system with two "incredibly engineered" gravity siphons that lift water up out of the St. MaryRiver base.

It then travelsthrough a series of five drop structures that easethe water back down a76-metre descent to the north fork of the Milk River,which then flows into Canada for about 280 kilometresbefore returning toMontana.

He says the infrastructure, which is 105 years old, had a failure ata concrete drop structure on the St. Mary Canal in Montana.

"The steel of the siphons, for instance, isthe age of the Titanic," he said.

"It's been like a vehicle with a check engine light on. When everything starts going, it all goes at once, and it's well overdue for some maintenance."

When it finally blew, Romanow says, the Milk River wasdownto only natural flow for the rest of summer.

"Luckily, the Montana folks rallied real quick. They got a contractor picked within the first week and had crews on site to start doing the work," he said.

Despite the quick reaction time, the damage still affected alot of people.

Romanow says the water supply helps irrigate over 105,000acresin Montana and about 8,600 acres in Canada. It also suppliesdrinking water for towns and villages.

"When the diversion first failed, there's 40 farm families (in southern Alberta) that would have been directly impacted from just the irrigation losses, never mind other producers that are reliant on the river for livestock watering and municipalities."

He says they were fortunate asthere wasan inch or two of rain almost every week through May, June and the first part of July.

"We projected direct losses just for irrigation farmers to be anywhere from $3.5- to $5-million and we really were able to limp along through most of the summer," he said.

"Our producers did a great job of of being water conscious, and our municipalities did a great job of implementing strategies to reduce usage."

However, he says the reality is, there is about $150-million worth of infrastructure that also still needs to be either repaired or have full replacement.

"There's some major challenges there and there's some environmental concerns that are still being addressed on theMontana side with regards to the bull trout entrapment and species-at-risk issues," he said.

With files from Lucie Edwardson and the Calgary Eyeopener.