HELENA — Residents in a north Helena Valley subdivision have again been raising concerns about their water service, and Montana utility regulators say they’re ready to pursue fines against the developer.
The Montana Public Service Commission has been looking into complaints from the North Star subdivision since 2020. Several summers since then, people living there say they’ve dealt with water use restrictions and inconsistent supply.
Complaints have started to surface again this year. At a PSC meeting July 8, commissioners said they were following up after customers reported losing water service on July 1.
“The commission sympathizes with the customers’ concerns, and the commission is exercising the authority it has according to procedures, as far as we are required to follow,” said PSC chair Brad Molnar, R-Laurel.
In a monthly filing with the commission, Rocky Mountain Operations – the company that maintains the water system for North Star – said two of their five well pumps went offline the night of June 30 “due to the underground wiring having a groundout issue from being directly buried without conduit when the wells were installed.” They said they would get the wells back online as soon as they can get a contractor to dig under a homeowner’s yard and alleyway to reach the wires.
Molnar said at the July 8 meeting that North Star had asked residents to limit outside watering until the damaged electrical components are replaced. This week, signs up at the entrances to the subdivision called for residents with even addresses and odd addresses to water at different times – though a neighboring subdivision has the same type of restriction in place.
Also at the July 8 meeting, Molnar said the PSC is ready to start calculating potential fines it could charge against North Star Development. In December, the commission issued an order, saying the developer had failed to provide “reasonably adequate” water service to its customers and failed to fully cooperate with the PSC.
Molnar said the commission is required to file a case in state district court to justify any potential fines.
“The Commission intends to take up the issue of the penalty amount at a work session by the end of this month,” he said.
PSC staff submitted a memo in May, saying they had met with North Star since December and the developer had provided additional information in response to the commission’s requests.
The memo said North Star had admitted it’s had inadequate water supply and has pointed to overuse by customers. It said water use restrictions haven’t been effective in addressing the problem but identified two remedies that could help: ensuring that all customers have working water meters and adjusting water rates to encourage conservation and fine customers who violate restrictions.
According to the memo, North Star told staff they could have meters for all customers by the start of June. Rocky Mountain Operations said in its monthly filing for June that there were no customers without functioning meters.
PSC staff said they were working with North Star to get them to file a new rate case – allowing for changes to the rate structure – by Sept. 30.
