LAUREL — Owned by the Billings Bench Water Association, one particular water intake ditch on the Yellowstone River in Laurel was the site of two separate river rescues back in August. One man even survived being sucked through the ditch's headgates.
Changes could be made to the headgates soon as the BBWA and the city of Billings have entered into an agreement to use money from a FEMA grant to replace them in the name of "flood mitigation."
Billings man Torben Fox will never forget when he was sucked through the intake ditch in August while paddleboarding with two friends on the Yellowstone River.
"This was actually my first time on the Yellowstone," said Fox back in August. "I got pulled into the second one, but I was backwards so I really didn't know what was happening. I hit the gate, I'm assuming, on my back. My back's got a big bruise on it. And the next thing I know, I'm underwater with about three-quarters of my body in the spillway already just holding onto the gate and that's when my arm is all bruised up."
Fox made it out okay and was able to get help for his two friends still stuck in the ditch.
The water intake ditch supplies water from the Yellowstone River to farmers in Shepherd.
"The gates are pretty old. And so they need to replace those. They're manual gates," said Louis Engels, city of Billings water quality superintendent, on Wednesday.
The city and the BBWA partnered together to apply for a FEMA grant to rebuild the ditch's headgates.
"These will be automated gates, then it will give the BBWA better control in an emergency to be able to shut those off," Engels said.
"If the canal has water in it and needs to be drained, they can automatically, at the switch of a button, turn that off and do that effectively," added Billings city engineer Mac Fogelsong.
The BBWA and the city of Billings expect $1.3 million through the FEMA grant for the headgates, but some of the money needs to be matched.
"That was specifically what was before Council. And then BBWA is on the hook for, I believe, it was a quarter of it," said Engels.
MTN reached out to the BBWA multiple times back in September and Wednesday but has received no response.
"It's smart from a risk standpoint for the city to be in contact and have a good relationship with the ditch company. So that should something happen, then we know how to respond," Engels said.
