Emkayan water system treated to kill coliform

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

Emkayan Village residents should know by Wednesday if treatment with chlorine for coliform bacteria in their water system worked.

System operator Frank Votapka on Monday sent water samples to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Votapka, who lives in the development, isn't sure about the contamination's source, but assumes it could be a leak in a water line.

"We haven't been able to find the leak, but it's somewhere in the distribution system," he said.

The DEQ recently issued an advisory notice to the water system's 175 users after coliform showed up in water samples taken on Oct. 17 and 23. The presence of the bacteria is generally not harmful. Residents, however, were told if concerned to boil water for one minute before drinking it.

Disease symptoms could include diarrhea, cramps, nausea and possibly jaundice, and any associated headaches and fatigue. These symptoms, however, are not just associated with disease-causing organisms in drinking water, but also may be caused by a number of factors.

To Votapka's knowledge, no one has gotten sick.

The subdivision of 65 homes gets its water from a collection of springs, said Greg Butts, section supervisor for the DEQ's Public Water and Subdivision Bureau in Kalispell.

Butts also remains unsure about the source of contamination.

"They had fixed a leak a while back and found some issues with the storage tanks, but they were all corrected," he said. "It's a pretty good water system and we're not sure what may have happened to get in there."

Butts is hopeful that adding the chlorine will help.

The water system experienced a similar problem one year ago.

"We didn't find anything concrete," Butts said. "It could be they do have a leak in the water system and somehow dirty water got in. It's hard to tell unless it surfaces."

The water system operator used to always add chlorine, but it was then left up to the operator's discretion, he said.

"Every year, it worked fine except this October and last October," Butt said. "It's possible they may need to go back on full-time chlorine to avoid the cycle."

Once the DEQ gets good results, the health advisory will be lifted.