BILLINGS — Construction is surging ahead on the city’s new West End Water Treatment Facility — a $68 million project designed to strengthen reserves, relieve the aging system, and secure clean water for generations to come.
The new plant will use longtime irrigation canals to deliver Yellowstone River water to its two new reservoirs and plant, marking a major investment in Billings’ future while honoring its historic roots.
“When we think about the founding of Billings, it doesn’t exist in any capacity, in any direction to our current form without irrigation, without water,” said Lauren Hunley, historian at the Western Heritage Center.
From above, the scale of the new facility is vast.
Inside, Louis Engels, the city’s Water Quality Superintendent, points out the massive blue pipe soon to carry water across the city.
“We are standing by the discharge pipe that will feed 44th and Shiloh,” Engels said. "This is going to be a state-of-the-art facility.”
Since the early 1900s, the Billings Bench Water Association has carried Yellowstone River water through a network of canals, now partnering with the city to help fuel this new system.
“An important piece, an important partnership that we have with them,” Engels added.
Hunley says Billings’ early irrigation systems laid the foundation for growth.
“From the beginning, they’re talking about where we put the reservoirs, how do we use them to stabilize access to water,” she said.
That history includes Lake Elmo, one of the first reservoirs fed by the Big Ditch Canal.
“Here in Billings that foundation is strong, one of the strongest in the county,” Hunley said. “Because of their (the founders) foresight, we’re just leaning on them to make big plans as we move forward.”
Now, that foresight flows into a new chapter as Billings builds on its past to secure its future.
The city says the irrigation canals will also help fill two nearby West End reservoirs, both still a couple of years from completion.
The plant itself is slated to be up and running by late summer or fall of 2026.
The city held a naming contest for those new recreation sites, and officials say they’ll share an update once the final names are decided.
