by Michael J. Marino
Huntley Project Irrigation District (HPID) decided to drop the north portion of their ongoing Riverbank Stabilization Project after concerns about mitigation costs were brought up at the district’s April 12 board meeting.
The Riverbank Stabilization Project (RSP) came about after two events caused erosion concerns along the Yellowstone River near Huntley. First, high waters upstream from the district’s Diversion Dam in 2020 eroded a significant portion of the ground. More recently, the 500 Year Flood of June 2022, only added to the long and arduous process of repairing the erosion of the riverbank.
District engineer, Scott Aspenlieder, said the original plan included work which requires a “wetland impact permit” from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), on both the north and south bank of the river along the Diversion Dam. When talks of the RSP first began in 2018, the cost of such a permit was around $90,000. Now, Aspenlieder stated that that cost has jumped up to nearly $500,000.
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