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A subdivision and a Hutterite colony in Lewis and Clark County received more than $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds through the Lewis and Clark County Board of County Commissioners and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation for water and sewer upgrades.

Eastgate Village near East Helena, which is home to about 2,000 residents, was granted $750,000 of ARPA minimum allocation funds through DNRC and $250,000 from the county's pot of ARPA money for improvements to its water system. Eastgate Village Water and Sewer Association is contributing $517,000 in matching funds for the project.

Elk Creek Colony, about 5 miles east of Augusta, received $60,000 from both a DNRC competitive grant and county ARPA money for a total of $120,000. The colony is contributing $60,000 in matching funds to the project.

The county allocated its ARPA contributions to the projects in July. The county has earmarked approximately $11 million of its $13 million in ARPA funds so far. 

The pass through of the DNRC ARPA funds was accepted Tuesday. 

Eastgate Village has a seven-well distribution system dating back to the 1970s and a more than 40-year-old pumphouse. One of the wells is out of commission due to sand issues and two others in the same area were taken offline.

"The loss of three wells means the (Eastgate Village Water and Sewer Association) simply cannot keep up with demand without placing water use restrictions on all users," the project's DNRC grant application states.

Eastgate Village Water and Sewer Association President Jean Riley told the county commission at Tuesday's regular meeting that the heat has caused residents to strain the system with near overwhelming demand.

"Even the big wells ... are going down because of the draw on them because of the heat," Riley said. "Our concern is firefighting. If we have a big fire, we're going to have some issues."

The project calls for a new pumphouse with a building bypass line and valve; installation of existing booster pumps and one new booster pump into the new pumphouse; a back-up emergency generator; the installation of a new "deep aquifer well," including drilling, development and casing; installation of a new well pump; installation of 1,400 feet of 8-inch transmission line; and electrical and instrumentation upgrades.

The hope is to complete the construction this fall to be ready for next summer.

County Commission Chairman Jim McCormick said he is "pleased to support this."

Elk Creek Colony has been dealing with high levels of nitrates in its drinking water supply.

"The Elk Creek Colony was in pretty serious need of some treatment for their drinking water," the county's ARPA Program Specialist Carrie Lutkehus said. "They were well in excess of the minimum levels for nitrates and despite drilling some pilot wells to find a new source of water, they were unable to do so."

Their project calls for the purchase and installation of an ion exchange system to remove nitrates from the colony's water supply; purchase and implementation of water quality monitoring equipment; and replacement of well pumps. The money will also pay for a local plumber to do the work.

According to the DNRC grant application, Elk Creek Colony intends to "complete most of the upgrades in-house with assistance from a local contractor."

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Nolan Lister is a reporter at the Helena Independent Record with an emphasis on local government and crime.

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