After more than a year of negotiation, the City of Boulder and the Montana State Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) have come to a final agreement on a long-anticipated easement that would allow Boulder to construct a new well (Well Five) on the Montana Highway Patrol campus.
As the well construction does not require approval from the Montana State Board of Land Commissioners, Boulder now can begin soliciting bids for contractors as soon as city and DPHHS officials sign the easement document, city officials said. Boulder will pay DPHHS $4,300 as part of the easement agreement.
The easement “has been a big hurdle we’ve been trying to work around, but I think the city has become pretty resilient as we go to face any other problems that might arise,” said Elly Schmeltzer, the Morrison-Maierle project engineer who is leading the water project’s technical planning and permitting efforts. “Once the new wells are functional and connected, the end result is going to be a really robust water system here in Boulder.”
