Malmstrom repairs water main break; boil order lifted
Malmstrom Air Force Base officials and Great Falls city crews responded to a water main leak found near a water valve during ongoing base modernization on Aug. 5.
The cause of the leak is unknown as of Aug. 7, according to base officials.
On Aug. 5, the base posted via social media that there was a significant water main leak at the 2nd Avenue gate and Matador Manor, on-base housing.
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The base temporarily shut down the water line to the base, but the majority of the base maintained water at a lower pressure using the water towers.
Base officials issued a boil notice of any water used for food preparation or personal hygiene as a precautionary measure.
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Several readers contacted The Electric wondering if their water systems off-base had been affected by the outage or there were any boil orders in the city.
On Aug. 5, Calob Marquis, city water infrastructure division manager, told The Electric that the break was inside of Malmstrom.
The city water system was not under a boil advisory during the break and city crews weren’t doing any repairs pertaining to the break, Marquis said.
The city used its normal procedures to isolate the mains feeding Malmstrom’s system, Marquis said.
By the evening of Aug. 5, base officials said that their civil engineers, in conjunction with contractors and city staff, had repaired the water line and were restoring water to the base.
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The boil order remained in effect until water testing was completed, which takes 24 hours to get results.
On Aug. 7, base officials told The Electric in an emailed statement that most of the base retained its water supply during the break, the Gateway FamCamp and Matador Manor had a temporary outage and water service was restored to all affected areas the same day.
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The boil order was lifted around 8:50 p.m. Aug. 6 after officials confirmed the water met all safety standards.
No negative pressure was detected in the system during the event, making contamination very unlikely and the boil order was a precautionary measure, according to Malmstrom officials.
