Libby city officials have canceled the health advisory on its water supply after meeting state requirements in the wake of December's flooding.

Following catastrophic flooding and subsequent water treatment plant difficulties on Dec. 11 that required a boil water order, city officials have worked with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to restore the water.

The boil water order was downgraded to a health advisory on Jan. 16 after it was demonstrated that the treatment plant was reliably meeting requirements. Flushing of the distribution system was needed prior to lifting the health advisory to remove any contaminants that may have been present in water mains.

City personnel have since completed the needed flushing. The city has monitored the distribution system daily since the boil water order was issued nearly three months ago. 

City Administrator Sam Sikes said that there has been no unsatisfactory results since Dec. 29.

"Libby is pleased to announce that we have met all the DEQ requirements and the health advisory on our water is lifted effective immediately," Sikes said. "Please spread the word and many thanks to all who helped completing the work to make this happen and to keep our water safe.

Local, county, state and federal officials are still working to determine the amount of destruction that occurred -- and how to fix it and pay for it. Sikes said recently the cost was already more than $800,000.

Sikes gave an update March 2 about work at the lower Flower Creek diversion dam.

"The good thing is the coffer dam is in and the reservoir is filled. Now we only have a few final steps of putting in a gate, armoring the bank around the newly created secondary access road and completing some fence repairs," he said. "We will be letting the turbidity in the reservoir settle for the next couple of days prior to letting the water through the intake manifold once again. We have not forgotten the road repairs that will be made throughout the rest of winter until we can lay some new asphalt on Cabinet Heights Road. The only change to the original plan was to make a small correction to the armoring of the rip rap to hold back a little more head pressure to operate the system properly."

Sikes said he would be putting out more updates individually to expand on the different areas of the process for clarification in the next couple of weeks.

For more information, contact Sikes at 406-293-1278 or Kathi Hooper of the Lincoln County Health Department at 406-283-2440.