ST. IGNATIUS—A waterline that was installed in St. Ignatius in the 1940s is being upgraded this summer to meet Department of Environmental Quality standards.

“Our system is quite old,” commented St. Ignatius Public Works Director Scott Morton. “We had a project in the 1980s that upgraded other parts of the system, but funds weren’t available to do this. Some of our pipes are undersized and wouldn’t have functioned much longer, so it’s good that we’re getting it done.”

The city of St. Ignatius will replace 3200 feet of waterline at three different locations in town—Home Addition, Mountain View Drive and Arrow Street. The current, undersized pipes that run through the city are four inches in diameter, and they are being upgraded to eight inches.

The project will cost approximately $600,000. All of the money was procured through a series of grants and loans.

“We shouldn’t need to raise water rates to pay back the loans,” said Morton. “I think the city can pay them back with the money we’re already making.”

With these funds, the city is also building another backup well which will support the two the town already has; the two wells are aging quickly—one was built 32 years ago and the other was built 50 years ago.

Currently, the two wells run for 21 hours a day in the summer. According to Morton, they will not be able to run for such strenuous hours much longer because of their age. The new well will make the water system more efficient and put the two older wells at a lower risk of failure.

The brunt of this work will take place on Mountain View Drive, which has seen a significant amount of development since the first part of this upgrading project took place thirty years ago. Here, the city of St. Ignatius will replace a great deal of waterline, a fire hydrant and upgrade the new creek crossing.

The project, according to Morton, should continue for the next two months, into October.

Residents of St. Ignatius need only follow the water regulations that have been in place for the last 12 years—watering should only be done between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. The town will be notified of any emergency, at which time the laws would be temporarily changed. However, the possibility of disruption is being kept to a minimum. Residents of the places where serious work is being done on the waterline may expect up to eight hours total of disruptions, but nothing more serious should be expected.