U.S. government sues tiny town's water district over arsenic, radium
Just as the town of Jackson — population 28 — gets ready to fix its water quality problems, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the town’s water and sewer district for the years the unincorporated town has been out of compliance.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the town’s water and sewer district Wednesday in federal court for 16 claims of contamination exceedances, failure to monitor and failure to provide public notice.
The contamination includes arsenic, radium and radioactive substances. The district has also failed to monitor for a host of contamination, including asbestos, according to the court document.
But Beaverhead County commissioner Mike McGinley said the suit comes just as Jackson is about to fix the issues. The town has received $588,000 in grant money within the last year to tackle the problem. Some of the money came from last year’s legislative session, McGinley said. Another grant came through a federal community development block grant. Work is to begin this summer to drill three new wells to get the town back into water quality compliance, he said.
Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/u-s-government-sues-tiny-town-s-water-district-over/article_db441c3c-352a-5165-9e7f-a65039c3706b.html
