Local Common Sense Conservation

PONDERA COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT AWARDED DEQ GRANT

This fall the Pondera County Conservation District has been awarded a $69,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Section 319(h) of the Federal Clean Water Act grant program.  This grant is providing funds to construct a new irrigation infrastructure on the Pondera County Canal & Reservoir Company’s AN-Canal System in order to prevent severe bank erosion and sedimentation from further affecting the Marias River and its tributaries.

A site assessment of the project site was conducted in Sept 2006. The assessment concluded that the erosive nature of bank materials along the wasteway will likely continue to increase over the coming years.  Implementation of this project will retain approximately 275 acre-feet of irrigation water each year.

The AN-Wasteway Rehabilitation project was selected largely due to the amount of erosion that has occurred, the amount of agricultural land and infrastructure that could be affected by continued erosion and potential for improved water quality. Estimates of historic erosion and subsequent sedimentation are estimated at 35,000 cubic yards. 

The project includes construction of a new irrigation infrastructure to prevent severe bank erosion of this existing wasteway.  By also expanding an existing reservoir, water will be conveyed from the wasteway for storage and irrigation of nearby property.  No excess water is expected to flow beyond the downstream water users, eliminating high suspended solids water from degrading the Marias River.

Morrison-Maierle, Inc., based in Helena, will be the consulting engineer for the project.  Much of the work will also be completed by the Pondera County Canal & Reservoir Company.  Construction will be completed by Dec 2007.  Water sampling, which begins this fall, will continue through June 2008.  Sampling will be done in the existing canal at a downstream location as well as at an upstream location. 

This grant is sponsored by the Pondera County Conservation District and is supported by the Marias River Watershed Group.

$100,000 RIVER ASSESSMENT GRANT RECEIVED BY THE PONDERA COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT

During the last Montana Legislative session, the Pondera County Conservation District was awarded a $100,000 Renewable Resource Grant, in which a riparian assessment will be conducted on the Marias River and its tributaries.  The assessment will help determine how channel behavior has responded to natural processes and human influences. Data collected will help explain the extent and impacts of noxious weed infestations, stream bank erosion, transportation corridors, stream bank stabilization measures, and in-channel infrastructure.  Long-term water-quality monitoring locations will be selected and set up in order to develop a comprehensive watershed assessment and monitoring program that will assist landowners in developing watershed management plans and programs to conserve water and improve or protect water-quality.

 The monitoring program will evaluate nutrients, salinity/TDS/chlorides, thermal modification, suspended solids, flow alteration, siltation, pH, pathogens, other organics within the surface water, and will locally evaluate habitat alterations.  Currently the lack of recent and/or comprehensive data makes it difficult to identify specific water and land use practices that can be implemented within the watershed to improve and protect water quality. Water-quality monitoring will also document changes in water-quality in areas where Best Management Practices are implemented or where water-quality improvement projects are conducted. 

For monitoring purposes the Marias River has been separated into three separate segments: The confluence of Two Medicine River and Cut Bank Creek to Lake Elwell; Lake Elwell, formed behind Tiber Dam, and The Marias River below Tiber Dam to the mouth at the Missouri River. 

Overall the goal of this project is to develop a long-term water-quality monitoring network on tributaries and mainstem of the Marias River, to collect water-quality samples and discharge measurements to establish baseline water-quality through a comprehensive three year monitoring project, and to develop regional water-quality database that will be locally operated and maintained.

This grant is sponsored by the Pondera County Conservation District and is supported by the Marias River Watershed Group.