“A bill to authorize the Dry-Redwater Regional Water Authority System in the State of Montana, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes the purpose of the Act to ensure a safe and adequate municipal, rural, and industrial water supply for citizens of Dawson, Garfield, McCone, Prairie, and Richland Counties in Montana and McKenzie County in North Dakota.
This section defines terms used throughout the Act, including the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration, the Dry-Redwater Regional Water Authority (and any nonprofit successor), the Integrated System, non-Federal transmission and distribution systems, the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program, the Secretary of the Interior, the State of Montana, and the Water System serving Garfield, McCone, Dawson, Richland, and Prairie Counties in Montana plus the portion of McKenzie County, North Dakota, west of the Yellowstone River.
This section authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the Dry-Redwater Regional Water Authority System project in a manner substantially in accordance with the Bureau of Reclamation feasibility study dated October 2025 (including revisions), which was authorized under the Clean Water for Rural Communities Act, subject to the condition that livestock watering is not limited to incidental noncommercial use. The section requires the Secretary to enter into a cooperative agreement with the Authority to provide federal assistance for planning, design, and construction, with the federal share of costs not to exceed 75 percent of the total (or a lesser amount determined by the Secretary) and such amounts nonreimbursable under reclamation laws; federal funds may be used for water intake, pumping, treatment, storage, transmission pipelines, pumping stations, electrical facilities, and related infrastructure (including purchase and improvement of certain existing public water system facilities) but not for operation, maintenance, or replacement, with title to the Water System held by the Authority.
This section directs the Administrator to make available each year a quantity of power from the Pick-Sloan Program sufficient to meet the operational requirements of the Dry-Redwater Regional Water Authority System from water intake facilities through all pumping stations, treatment facilities, reservoirs, storage tanks, and pipelines to the point of retail delivery. The Water System is eligible only if it operates on a not-for-profit basis and is constructed pursuant to a cooperative agreement under section 4(b). The Administrator must charge the firm power rate, the Authority is responsible for payment of that charge and all non-Federal delivery costs, and the Water System must fund any necessary transmission or distribution upgrades to the Integrated System.
This section preserves state water rights and authorities by providing that nothing in the Act preempts or affects any state water law or any state authority, as in effect on the date of enactment, to manage water resources within that state.
This section authorizes $602,000,000 for the planning, design, and construction of the Water System for fiscal years 2027 through 2037. The authorized amount may be adjusted for ordinary fluctuations in development costs after January 1, 2024, as indicated by applicable engineering cost indices, and for unforeseen market volatility not captured by those indices, as determined by the Secretary.