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WASHINGTON D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny
Rehberg, was successful in pressing for the release
of the final engineering reports for the $5.3
million Rocky Boy’s/North Central Water Project,
which will enable construction to begin this summer.
In a call to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB), Rehberg detailed the need to release the
reports, which allow the funds to be spent, for this
project immediately. Release of the reports had been
stalled after the project became lost in OMB’s
bureaucratic maze.
"This project is vital to not only the Rocky Boy’s
Reservation, but to all of north-central Montana,"
said Rehberg, a member of the Energy & Water
Appropriations subcommittee, which has jurisdiction
over water projects. "We’ve made a commitment to
provide clean water to the folks living in these
areas and I don’t want to see bureaucratic hurdles
standing in the way."
Rehberg secured funding for the project last year in
the Energy & Water Development Appropriations bill.
The Rocky Boy’s project brings together three
participating water systems that are currently
listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s
(EPA) significant non-compliance list for violating
the Surface Water Treatment Rule. The project will
move the systems into compliance and provide
upgrades.
When completed, the Rocky Boy’s system will
transport water from the Tiber Reservoir to the
Rocky Boy’s Reservation through a core pipeline. It
will also serve residents in portions of the
following counties: Chouteau, Hill, Liberty,
Pondera, Teton and Toole.
"Safe and dependable drinking water isn’t a
privilege, it’s a right," Rehberg added. "These
communities deserve that and if I have to prod a
government bureaucracy to deliver on that promise,
then I’m going to do that."
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