News you can use

Flouride a hot topic at regional water treatment plant meeting

Havre Daily News/Tim Leeds

Dean Stockert, drinking water manager of Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, talks Tuesday in Chester about the plans for a water treatment plant for Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System to be built at Tiber Dam.

Engineers in Chester Tuesday presented plans for a plant that will treat water for nearly 30,000 people from Loma through Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation north to the Canadian Border and west past Shelby, but an unexpected hot topic arose during the discussion: flouride in the water.

Dean M. Stockert, drinking water manager for Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services Inc. out of Great Falls, presented the initial plans for a water treatment plant to be located at Tiber Dam south of Chester.

The plant would treat water for people served by the Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System, which was authorized as a result of the water compact the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy negotiated with the state and federal governments in the 1990s.

For comparison purposes, he said the plant will be five times bigger than the water treatment plant at the west edge of Havre, which was upgraded and enlarged early last decade.

When Stockert said the plans included adding flouride to the water to meet Environmental Protection Agency recommendations, several people in the audience asked if that was already locked in — they said having the issue decided locally and communities adding flouride on an individual basis if desired might be better.

One audience member, who did not identify herself, said there is virtually no way for people to remove flouride once it is added to the water.

"To me, why not deliver (the water), and if I want flouride I'll brush my teeth with it, or take a pill, " she said.

Stockert said if member communities of the system don't want flouride added, they should bring it to the authority for discussion.

"It's not too late, " he said.

He added that the flouridation was included because it is highly recommended by the EPA.

Mary Heller, general manager of the regional water authority that is working on the non-reservation part of the system, said she will add discussion of flouridation to the agenda for the system board's annual meeting in October.

Heller added that the individual communities should take a vote or somehow decide their position.

"And then let us know, so we know exactly how the communities feel, " she said.

Stockert said he had received several telephone calls from people in the region urging that flouride be added to the water, and Tuesday was the first time he had heard that idea questioned. He said he was glad to hear the concerns, and that the issue should be taken up with the water authority.

Steve Burian, chief executive officer of Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, agreed.

"Given the emotion in the room, we clearly need to add that to the agenda, " he said.

The initial half-hour of the meeting had Stockert presenting the proposal for the plant. He said 30 or more possibilities were examined, with a variety of ways to deal with organic and inorganic matter in the water that needed to be removed. Several items were included in the examination, including what best met EPA regulations on water quality, cost to build the planned plant and the cost to operate and maintain it, the staffing required and the safety of the staff and the people using the water.

The top choice that came out of the process included using chloramination — adding a mixture of chlorine and ammonia, which is used more and more commonly across the nation — carbon filtration and settling and filtering processes.

Under the agreement of the water compact, the water intake and treatment plant, as well as the lines to distribute the water to Rocky Boy — known as the core system — are under the authority of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Tribal Water Resource Department of the Chippewa Cree Tribe has assumed responsibility for the BIA for operation and maintenance of the core system, which was expected as part of the water compact.

Stockert said the construction of the plant is set in three stages, with each stage increasing the amount of water that can be treated daily, with the first stage capable of treating 11 million-gallons-of-water-a-day and the last stage 33 million-gallons-a-day.

That first stage has been further broken down, with the latest proposal for a 3.6 million-gallon-a-day plant just sent to Washington. Stockert said the cost of that is $48.65 million in today's dollars, although it also will create infrastructure that would be used in later upgrades.

For example, he said, the Western Area Power Administration requires the electrical infrastructure for the full 33 million-gallon-a-day plant be erected before the power can be hooked up.

That will create time and money savings in future upgrades, as the full system will be in place. Stockert said this morning in an interview that the $48 million project will provide other infrastructure for future upgrades, as well.

The water from the first stage will be sent to five communities off of the reservation — the town of Chester, the South Chester Water District, the Tiber County Water District, Riverview Colony and the Hill County Water District. Stockert said the pipeline already is in place to ship water to those communities.

As the authority's and tribe's pipelines are expanded, more communities and residents of the reservation will be added to the service.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/02/2024 11:12