City says water is safe and it has no additives

The City of Columbia Falls water is safe and has posted the results of the most recent round of testing on its web site.

“Our water is very safe,” Columbia Falls City Manager Susan Nicosia told council last week. “We take (water quality) very seriously and the health of our community.”

Nicosia made the remarks after social media posts that claimed the city water was to blame for possible health risks, particularly after a local teen developed a cancer that’s rare in young people.

Nicosia said noted the last round of testing showed no levels on contaminants above safe water drinking thresholds. She noted the city routinely tests for contaminants as required under state and federal laws. The 2016 results are not yet available, but the city has not had any alerts, violations or bacteria violations.

The city gets its water from wells. It is not chlorinated and there are no additives that would erode pipes. The city does not have lead pipes, she noted.

The routine monitoring of the inorganic chemicals antimony, beryllium, nickel, thallium, barium, cadmium, chromium, fluoride, mercury and selenium is on a reduced frequency by waiver from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality because the results of four sampling rounds showed very low to non-detectable quantities and therefore no hazard.

Annually, a complete report is printed in the Hungry Horse News. Hard copies are available at City Hall as well as its web site at cityofcolumbiafalls.org.

The city has also taken pains to require that irrigation water from homes does not contaminant the city’s water supply. Anyone who has a sprinkler system in the city is required to have a backflow prevention device and is also required to have it inspected annually.

There has been contamination in private wells outside the city limits in the past. In 2008, Plum Creek settled a lawsuit with about 20 homeowners that lived near the plant because of possible formaldehyde contamination in their private wells. Wells at the former Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. site, which is now a Superfund site, have tested positive for cyanide, but no private wells downstream from the plant have tested above safe water drinking thresholds, to date.

Because of concerns about CFAC, the city has ramped up its water testing in the city, Nicosia noted.

A host of new test wells were drilled at CFAC last year and water tests have been taken. Results from those tests are expected sometime this month.

In other city news:

• The city expects a new water main to Timber Creek Village will cost about $250,000. When it was first constructed, it was found the water line, as it went under U.S. Highway 2, had been routed through a street sewer. As a result, the highway developed a sinkhole. The city will now have to pay for a re-routing of the water line under the street sewer. It will then try to recoup its costs.

• The city has negotiated a right-of-way agreement with Roger and Virginia Elliott associated with the Riverwood Estates special improvement district. The district should be finalized this month. The state land board is expected to vote on an easement for the sewer line across state lands later this month. The line would run from the neighborhood and tie into a sewer line near the Montana Veterans Home.

• Columbia Falls Police Officer Mike Johnson was recognized for 10 years of service. Cooper Lee was approved as a probationary member of the Columbia Falls Fire Department.