HYSHAM - The community of Hysham got more answers as the town's water woes came into focus inside a City Council meeting on Wednesday night.
It began more than a month ago afterresidents were put on a boil advisory following multiple failures and problems at the town's water plant.
Residents recently found out a 90-day plan that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality put in place to fix the issues began on Feb. 1.
Officials say the issue involves the plant's filters, which have been off-line for years and now have to be re-built.
The town of Hysham has a long-term plan and a 90-day plan, which Mayor Larry Fink received on Tuesday.
The water has been a little bit cleaner, thanks partly with help from the water treatment people in Forsyth.
The boil advisory affects the whole town, including the school
"The kids can run down and get bottles of water," said Peggy Deveny, Hysham School paraprofessional. "We use it for coffee. I use it for hot chocolate. Usually, you know it's pretty good because we can't use the drinking fountains anymore."
The mayor showed the DEQ's 90-day plan to the City Council for the first time.
"We're redoing one of our filters," Fink said. "We have two filters down there. And we're going to work on the computer system so that if something goes wrong, it actually contacts us by phone now."
And the DEQ also included the long-term plan.
"The long term was part of the 90-day plan," Fink said. "It's just making sure that everything is up to par and kept up to par."
Fink says sometimes the water comes out with sediment that eventually goes away and Forsyth's water treatment experts have been working to help fix the Hysham plant.
"We were able to use that sump pump to move that material out of that filter and it worked very well," said Andy Sullivan, Forsyth water director. "It was a ton of work because you have to shovel it and use fire hoses to kind of move it around. I don't think I've been as tired as that day in about 20 years. But I was very pleased with how successful moving that material out was."
Cleaning up around the filters has made for better water.
"There's some questions that we still have," Sullivan said. "But I'm encouraged that when we spend the time on it, that we're going to be able to get our heads wrapped around this. Get the things addressed that need to be addressed and be on the road to good places."
While some have still expressed frustration with the water, others say they have made it work.
"There are some people that are a little upset and rightly so," Deveny said. "You got to be patient. It'll pass eventually."
The 90-day plan is designed to end the need for a boil advisory.
"I hope it's done before 90 days," Fink said.
