THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE:
Great news to share, the water plant is operating at normal capacity and the residents of Billings can go back to normal water use!
River conditions at the water plant greatly improved over night. This morning the depth on the Yellowstone River is below 12 feet, a level the plant can manage.
At this point there are no signs we will have issues operating as we move forward.
We want to thank the citizens of Billings for your cooperation and helping us get through the day on Wednesday.
We are aware yesterday’s alert to the community caused a panic. That was never our hope, and we only wanted to keep everyone informed.
We have never witnessed a situation like the one we saw yesterday.
On Wednesday morning, we did not know how bad it could get or how long it would continue. It is always our intention to provide water to our community, but in that moment, it was not clear how long our supply would last.
Reservoir water levels did get low yesterday, but because our community was willing to do what was needed, we got through this situation.
Many have asked how the upcoming West End Reservoir would’ve helped in this situation and the impact would be immense.
The new reservoir will have the ability to hold more than 30 days’ worth of water.
In Wednesday’s case, the new reservoir would’ve isolated water from the river.
The new reservoir is still scheduled to break ground by late this summer/early fall and construction will begin the following spring/summer.
Billings, we can’t thank you enough for your understanding and cooperation.
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City of Billings Evening Water Plant Update – Wednesday, June 15, 2022
This evening’s falling river level is a big relief and welcome news.
Tonight, the plant is operating at a level that can meet the community’s essential needs.
If residents continue to refrain from watering their grass or taking part in other activities that use a significant amount of water, we will be able to continue providing the city with basic water services.
We are feeling confident that we won’t run out of water in that day to day-and-a-half time frame we originally expected, but that is only if residents continue to conserve water.
Please be confident that we will provide essential water service to you if everyone continues to follow our request.
On another positive note, the City of Billings would like to thank NorthWestern Energy and Phillips 66 for their assistance with another issue we ran into today at the water plant.
Our substation which provides the water plant with electricity became flooded.
Because of this, we had to switch to generators and relied on generator power to get us through the day.
During this, Phillips 66 arrived with equipment to pump water out of the substation so we could return to our main source of power.
Through all of this good news, we would still like to ask Billings to go into Thursday morning conserving water. If your water sprinklers are on an automatic timer in the morning, please reprogram your sprinkler to skip its usual morning watering schedule.
As shared by our partners with the Yellowstone County Unified Health Command, other water conservation activities include:
● Refrain from washing your vehicles until the plant is operational
● Put off doing laundry for several days if possible
● Only run the dishwasher when it is full
● Limit water used for or during showers and baths
Thank you for your continued support.
Original source can be found here.
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