EPA lifts Rocky Boy boil order

Eighteen days after 1,500 to 2,000 Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation residents had been put on a water boil alert due to multiple water main breaks in the reservation’s water system, the Environmental Protection Agency has lifted that order.

Dustin White, interim director of Tribal Water Resources for the Chippewa Cree Tribe, confirmed this morning that previously affected residents can go back to normal water usage. People can drink the water without having to boil it, he said.

The EPA press release says that the samples collected from Dec. 27 to 29, Jan. 3 and 4 have come back as safe, and weekly samples will now be collected.

White said that weekly tests should last between one to two weeks, after which monthly monitoring will start.

The crisis started three days before Christmas. White said the frigid temperatures from a few weeks prior alternating with above-freezing temperatures most likely caused multiple pipes in the water system to burst.

For the three days after Dec. 22, work had been done to track down and repair leaks and restore pressure to the system. Affected residents were told they could pick up 24-packs of water bottles at the Tribal Water Resources Office and White said water was being delivered to the elderly and disabled.