The city’s boil advisory remains in effect, but officials said they’re hopeful to lift in on July 30 as planned.
An early morning water main break on July 23 caused a drop in pressure that officials were concerned could have resulted in contamination of the city water supply, so they issued a precautionary boil water advisory for residents in the affected area, which is Skyline addition north of Riverview Drive; north of Chicago Avenue in Black Eagle; northwest of Avenue E; north to Great Bear Avenue and Eagles Crossing.
The city also issued a temporary water restriction in the area to aid crews in repairs. That restriction was lifted July 27.
Chris Gaub, city public works director, told The Electric on July 29 that the water main was repaired.
City issues precautionary boil water advisory after water main break
He said that complete street and sidewalk repair would take months but the city is doing temporary repairs such as gravel.
The city is continuing to test and flush the system per Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s protocols, Gaub said, and all testing has been “well within parameters.”
The water main that broke was installed in 1960 on 32nd Avenue Northeast between 6th and 9th Streets. The cast iron pipe failed due to natural corrosion.
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The line wasn’t scheduled for repair or replacement.
Gaub told The Electric last week that according to city records, there hadn’t been any prior breaks on this section of the line and his department will evaluate the current break to determine whether it needs to be reprioritized within the departments capital improvement plan.
The city is following DEQ’s protocol to issue the boil advisory and continue testing for seven days for chlorine.
Gaub said DEQ advised the city to issue the boil order within 24 hours and the city issued the advisory at 12:50 p.m.
The city issued the advisory on July 23 and encouraged those in the affected area who lost water service or water pressure that morning should boil their water as a precaution for one week.
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“Consuming or ingesting the water after the break is the reason for the boil water advisory. [Montana Department of Environmental Quality] advises residents who are going to ingest or consume the water to boil the water. Portable filters such as Britta or similar will provide protection, but not refrigerator filters. They are generally for sediment filtration only,” Gaub said.
Cascade County closed the fill station on 36th Street until the boil order is over.
Customers will have to use an alternate location, such as a private fill station or Cascade County fill stations as follows:
- 1100 21st Ave. S.
- 1615 8th Ave. N.W.
The drop in pressure only affected the area with boil order, but not the system as a whole.
The water tower in that area lost pressure and the rest of the system maintained pressure so back-contamination wouldn’t occur, Gaub said.
Gaub said the advisory applies to water being consumed by humans and DEQ didn’t specify provisions for pets.
