The Clancy Water and Sewer District moved a little closer to its goal of a community water system by approving work to begin on a new test well.The effort to create a public fresh water system for Clancy residents, which is meant to address concerns over detected contaminants in private wells, is now nearly two years old, and has faced many obstacles.
At its regular monthly meeting on Jul. 24, the board listened to Great Western Engineering representatives Joel Pilcher and Dan Baum present bids from four contractors on the costs of drilling one or two test wells. The second well would only be needed as a contingency if the first test well failed to produce sufficient water quality or quantity.
Baum reported that Marks Ranch had given permission to drill a test well on its property south of Legal Tender Lane in Clancy, and that location was targeted for the first test well by the board. Baum said that Great Western Engineering had also been in talks with the owners of the property that the Legal Tender restaurant now sits on about testing the viability of the current well there, which could be a second source for the community water source.
Clancy’s Water and Sewer District has already had a bumpy history. The project traces back to 2018, when a team from Montana Tech sampled wells in collaboration with Jefferson County and the Clancy Water and Sewer District, and found both nitrates and uranium levels in excess of Environmental Protection Agency safe drinking water standards. The cause of the contamination was attributed to septic tanks leaching into groundwater supplies. The Water and Sewer board developed a project to bring a sewage processing plant and community water supply to the affected Clancy residents. Estimated costs and community resistance led the board to scale the project back to simply a community freshwater source.
Even that smaller effort found challenges. Land owners were reluctant to give up the space to drilling and well operations, residents expressed concerns about reduction in the water table for private wells, and initial test wells were either too high in uranium levels, or not able to provide 100 gallon-per-minute minimum requirements for a community system.
The Water and Sewer Board reviewed the drilling bids that Great Western Engineering had received, and selected Excel Drilling from Bozeman as the contractor. Excel did not submit the lowest bid overall, but could begin work sooner than the other bidders, within the next two weeks, and was not significantly more expensive. The initial test well will cost $54,200, and a second, if needed, will cost $108,400. The board voted to hold an emergency, off-schedule meeting on Aug. 14 to review the progress and testing results.
During public comment, the board was asked if the pursuit of water rights at the Clancy Elementary School property had been abandoned. Board member Bill Hammer answered that the school property had not been eliminated from consideration, but that the school had not been very receptive to the idea.
“We decided to look at more accessible options,” Hammer said.
