Recently, I was able to tour the state of Montana alongside retired Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem- a great American.

He shared some shocking information about the invasion taking place on our Southern Border in these last 3 years. Here's one: we taxpayers are spending nearly a half million dollars just to operate ONE "migrant" shelter on the Southern Border alone. $500,000 a day to take care of people who shouldn't have been allowed to break into this country in the first place.

That's why I still have this one burning question when it comes to the St. Mary Siphon failure here in Montana. This infrastructure is incredibly important to the entire Hi Line here in Montana- drinking water, recreation, farms that feed the world. Yet, they will undoubtedly be starved of water until this infrastructure is fixed by late Summer of 2025 at the earliest.

The feds and the state have ponied up phones to build a permanent replacement, but a temporary fix was apparently seen as too costly by federal officials back in Washington, DC. How much would a temporary fix have cost? If I recall right, it would have cost about $5 million for the project and then about $20K a day to operate.

So here's the question for folks back in Washington, DC: if we can supposedly afford $500K a day for one "migrant" shelter on our Southern Border, why can't we afford $20K a day for this important project along our Northern Border?

By the way, big thanks to Bureau of Reclamation officials here in Montana for joining us on the radio recently to talk about this important infrastructure here in Montana. Here's the audio of our recent chat with the area manager for Montana along with the maintenance manager for the area BOR office.

 

Check out some of the photos- these pipes look like rusted out tailpipes on an old pickup. 

Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
Credit Bureau of Reclamation Montana area office
loading...

 

LOOK: Can You Recognize These Iconic '70s Objects

Let's take a walk down a very groovy memory lane and ponder some of the things that made life easy, fun and undeniably cool in the '70s.

Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz

More From Montana Talks