Permanent chlorination

ST. IGNATIUS — The town of St. Ignatius will permanently chlorinate its water supply, public works director Ray Frey confirmed last week.

Based on two positive E. coli samples collected from one of the town’s two wells on July 14 and 19, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a boil water order for the town of St. Ignatius’ public water supply on July 21. For a short period of time, the order required residents and businesses in St. Ignatius to drink bottled water or boil water before consumption.

The boil order was lifted Aug. 3. At the time, the DEQ provided the town with three options: Full-time chlorination, replacement of the well, or elimination of the source of contamination, which was a tribally owned sewer line only about 40 feet from the source of contamination, a well across from Taelman Park.

“There was no other option,” Frey said about the decision to chlorinate instead of dig an entirely new well and re-do the town’s entire water distribution system.

Continued chlorination has been in effect for almost four months now. The town’s tap water is safe to drink and nothing will really change, Frey said.

“You can taste it,” he added, “but it’s not like it was at first when we had to shock the system.”

Chlorination costs the town an additional $5 to $6 per day, Frey said, and requires testing water samples daily, a chore which either he or his back-up operator must complete.

“We have to maintain a 0.2 [milligram per liter] residual,” he said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend not exceeding 2.0 mg/L due to taste concerns, according to the CDC’s Safe Water System Project Chlorine Residual Testing Fact Sheet.

“They set the mandate and it’s the same for New York City and for Mission,” Frey said. “It’s one size fits all.”