City hears timeline and questions on boil advisory

Editor's note: Part of this story was previous published on the Havre Weekly Chronicle webpage.

In a shorter and smaller- but still often contentious - than the May 6 Havre City Council meeting, during a town hall Monday about the Havre boil water advisory, the council heard an update on the timeline and background of the boil advisory, comments from the public and an announcement that the city is in the process of distributing some free bottled water.

The presence of active Giardia, a microscopic parasite that can cause illness, has not been confirmed in Havre's water supply but because three cases of Giardiasis were confirmed in the first quarter of the year and due to some previous issues at the water treatment plant, the city issued a boil advisory warning people active Giardia might be present and they may wish to avoid consuming city water unless it first was boiled. That advisory still is in effect, with the city working with Montana Department of Environmental Quality, which has jurisdiction over the issue, and other entities like Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and Hill County Health Department, to ensure the water is safe.

At the meeting, several people accused the city officials of causing the problem and failing to deal with it, and some accused them of lying, failing to take the blame and even telling them they should resign.

One person at the meeting said the opposite.

Mary Pizzini said Mayor Doug Kaercher and Havre Public Works Director Trevor Mork were born and raised here, and she realizes people have been sick, but she doesn't think they want bad things to happen here.

"A mistake was made," she said. "I think everybody's trying to remedy it. It's like, our world today, nobody wants to take accountability, but I feel like two people who were born and raised in Havre don't want bad things to happen here."

Havre Public Works Director Mork gave an extensive timeline on what has happened in the past several months that led to the boil advisory, with his PowerPoint presentation available on the city website at https://www.ci.havre.mt.us .

Mork said the city has been following the procedures DEQ has told them to follow including increasing treatment and flushing distribution lines, although he said the department has not been very consistent or timely in its feedback.

DEQ Public Water Supply Bureau Chief Greg Olsen said Wednesday that he needed to talk to Mork to know exactly what requests Mork was talking about before he could respond to that issue.

Olsen said he sent staff into Havre May 7 to verify the results he was receiving from Havre, and at three locations they found water that didn't meet the specifications.

He said that indicated to DEQ that the directional flushing Havre was doing had not been properly implemented at that point or else it would have brought all areas of the city to the proper levels.

Directional flushing is intended to circulate the water to bring recently treated water to all of the regions of the city.

Because of that, he said, DEQ decided to extend the boil order again.

Water Plant Superintendent Amanda Vaughn said during Monday's Town Hall that they have been following the treatment procedures and she has been testing the lines every day at specified locations and the tests are showing the water meeting the required levels.

But, she said, she found out Monday that the DEQ employee had the May 7 tests come back below the required levels.

Vaugh said she tries to be with the DEQ personnel when they are doing tests, but she was not aware they were in town May 7 doing the tests.

She said she went to the locations listed in the report as being below the required level Monday and tested all of them using the proper procedure and they all were above the required level.

She said she doesn't know what procedure the DEQ personnel used, because she didn't know they were testing.

She and Mork answered several questions about the water treatment process, and about what the city is doing to meet the requirements to lift the boil order including using procedures designated by DEQ on water treatment plant startup and backwash procedures, pH control and work in the clear well at the plant, testing chlorine residual levels in the distribution system and storage tank evaluations and flushing the distribution system.

Olsen said Wednesday that the city seems to be doing what needs to be done.

"I think they are making good progress," he said. "They are trying to implement a lot of the advisement we put forward."

Evaluations on the way

The city officials have been meeting with DEQ officials this week to begin a comprehensive performance evaluation at the plant intended to see what can be done to improve performance at the plant.

Several people in the audience suggested an after-event evaluation to find out what if anything went wrong and what can be done to prevent anything from happening in the future.

Mork said the city is coordinating with the county health department and is planning to conduct now of those evaluations after the comprehensive performance evaluation is complete. That evaluation should be complete by May 24 with the final report issued within 60 days.

Water distribution

Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher said during a town hall meeting in City Hall Monday that he had contacted Red Cross, as was suggested at the May 6 council meeting where the issue was discussed some three hours, to see if it could help provide water to people who don't want to use the city water and are having a hard time affording buying bottled water.

He said Red Cross wasn't interested because it wasn't considered an emergency, just a boil advisory.

But, he said to applause, the person to whom he spoke connected him with Anheuser-Busch, and the city took delivery Friday of a semi-load of water donated by the company.

Kaercher said Anheuser-Busch had requirements on the donation, with public entities like schools, hospitals and nursing homes receiving water from the donation first. The city is in the process of coordinating with those local entities.

"I assume we're going to have some water left over for the public," he said.

This is the third distribution of water in the city. Havre Assembly of God Church reached out to Convoy of Hope, which delivered a semi-load of water which the church distributed water at the church and to neighborhoods in Havre April 30 and May 1.

City Council also distributed water, May 11. Council members pooled funds and took donations from businesses to provide water in each of the city wards.

Cisterns

After an audience members asked about an issue raised May 6, the group also said they are in the process of finding out the best way to for people who store and use water in cisterns to reduce any risk.

Public Works Director Trevor Mork said he has been in contact with Montana Department of Environmental Quality and a private company, but had not received a response to his request as of Monday.

Hill County Health Officer Kim Berg said she has received some information from DEQ but the release of information was not finalized as of Monday.

"But I do have information and I will get that out," she said, adding she wants to know the best way to release that information.

She said she can put in on the website and social media outlets of the Hill County Health Department, where she also is the department director, and will distribute it to the local media outlets. She said she would distribute the information to anyone who needed it, with one person suggesting the city should be able to provide a list of everyone who buys water from the bulk water distribution station.

Code Red notifications

The city had posted materials about signing up for the Code Red notification system around the room and had flyers on how to sign up at the meeting.

Havre Police Chief Gabe Matosich said the system can be used to put out emergency alerts and also provide general alerts, like Havre issuing a boil advisory, but people have to sign up to received the general alerts.

People can text "HillAlert" to 99411 and follow the instructions to sign up for alerts. They also can visit https://hillcounty.us/departments/sheriff_coroner.php m with a link at the top of the page, or https://www.ci.havre.mt.us , with a link near the bottom of the page, or scan a QR code available to sign up.

Matosich said the system is being updated right now, and they will be conducting some test runs and notifications, probably this week.