Montanaâs crumbling St. Maryâs Milk River Project is set to receive $100 million from the U.S. Senateâs bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. All told, more than $300 million was approved Wednesday for Montana water projects by members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and two other Republicans joined Democrats in approving the expenses 13-7. The Milk River Project is a 339-mile lifeline for Hi-Line communities. It reroutes water from the St. Maryâs River, near Browning, into the Milk, which would otherwise be incapable of servicing the two tribes and four towns along its route. In the summer, a long green belt of 120,000 farm acres skirts the Milk, dividing it from the beige burn of Montanaâs arid northern plains.