Water users dealing with a dry Milk River following siphon burst

A catastrophic siphon failure at the St Mary canal near Babb, Montana has nearly dried up the Milk River.

MILK RIVER, Alta. — It's been just over two months since a siphon burst in Montana led to the Milk River drying up.

Since then the Town of Milk River has been doing what it can to manage the problem.

Before it failed,  the siphon diverted water from the St Mary River to the Milk River.

Now the flow rate of the river has gone from over 17 cubic metres per second to less than one.

“We got through the most critical high temperature low flow period," said Tim Romanow, executive director of the Milk River Watershed Council of Canada. "(For) most of July, we were at zero natural flow and it was causing a pretty big problem for water users -- the Town of Milk River as well as the aquatic environment -- just to survive."

Water restrictions in place

The Town of Milk River is currently under a Level 3 water restriction.

That prohibits all unessential water use and bulk water sales unless it's for domestic or live stock use.

The lack of water has made it a frustrating summer for the town.

“The town's trying to keep up with our Level 3 water restrictions we put on," said Milk River mayor, Larry Liebelt. "We're pumping still water up but not enough to keep everybody's lawns healthy and yards healthy and trees and everything like that."

Siphon repair underway

Repair work is underway at the St. Mary siphon.

The Bureau of Reclamation in the United States is overseeing the repairs and provided an update, saying "replacement efforts are progressing expeditiously, all the existing siphon pipe has been removed, the inlet/outlet structures have been demolished, excavation to grade for the new pipes is ongoing and anticipated to be completed in the next few weeks."

The repairs for the siphon could be finished as early as August 2025.

But that means Milk River and other nearby towns will likely be in for another dry summer.

“Going into next spring, that's potentially a big challenge. Lots of plans, short term plans and long term plans, are being developed right now on how we're going to address the situation next spring,” said Romanow.

If ground water were to stop being pumped the town of Milk River's storage reservoirs would have enough water for seven months.