After years of frustration and a long fight for clean water, residents at Meadowlark Mobile Home Park have secured a $2.7 million to connect to city water.
The Billings City Council voted on Monday night, to require applying for annexation to hook up to city water.
The council made the same requirment for the Blain Property and the McDougal Subdivision.
“No matter how many times I scrub that toilet,” Mike Padilla said about trying to clean stains.
Padilla has dealt with dirty water at Meadowlark for years, and he's not yet sure about hooking up to the city of Billings water.
“I'm not looking forward to city water, but it would be nice so we could drink it,” Padilla said as he pointed to a bottle of drinking water. “You know that's what our water should be, whether it's purified or not.”
With annexation into the city of Billings on the table and closer than ever, Padilla says he's concerned with higher water rates.
Other neighbors share that concern, saying just to leave well enough alone.
They've learned to live with the water issues.
“I don't really want it,” said Jim Potter. “I would just a soon we stay where we're at. I've lived out here for darn near 25 years and we've had our issues, but they try to fix them as they go.”
While some still have concerns about the water, Meadowlark management says it has been working on the tanks and the filtering systems, and the water is much cleaner.
Still, Havenpark likes the idea of hooking up to city water.
And while the water appears cleaner, the well water has long been contaminated with manganese.
“It has some aesthetic quality so it can make the water taste bad, smell bad, and it makes the water look dark,” said Neal Murray, Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) emerging contaminant grant manager. “It also has some health effects primarily on children, infants, and the elderly.”
And $2.7 million can fix that. Meadowlark has been approved for the DEQ emerging contaminant grant, which would pay for a mile and a half of water pipe.
“So the objective with this project is to connect them to the Billings City Water which is a better source,” Murray said. “And so the emerging contaminant grant actually puts a higher priority on connection.”
Because the DEQ grant must flow through local government, the city council asked Havenpark to apply once more for annexation to the city of Billings.
Havenpark manager Jay Van Tassel says the property owner is not against annexation.
“There's a lot of discussions involved with annexation, so we need to figure out what that looks like,” Van Tassel said at the city council work session on Monday.
While the connection to Billings water seems imminent, some Meadowlark residents continue to want no part of the city.
“I mean, it's dirty, but it's all right,” said William Shaffer.
But when asked if its drinkable, he said, “I wouldn't say drinkable.”
