Don’t drink the water
City of Max issues water advisory
BY JAMES C. FALCON
james@nordaknorth.com
A do not use water advisory has been put in place by the City of Max. The advisory was put into place Tuesday morning after it was discovered that the city’s water supply from the
North Prairie Regional Water District had run dry. Don Krebsbach, city maintenance director for the City of Max, explained that power went out in Max on Sunday evening around 6 p.m. “We didn’t have power in Max until 8:30 at night,” Krebsbach said. “Then, it was spotty.” Meanwhile, the cell from which the city gets their water did not have a generator on it – and “their power was out completely,” he said. On Sunday and Monday, “it started to drain down through the night … until 4 o’clock (Monday), it hit 0.0,” Krebsbach added. The valve was shut off until 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, at which time the city started to get water. However, there is a fear of the unknown – whether or not there are contaminants in the water. Kresbach explained that when the tower goes completely empty and as everyone tries to get water to their homes, “it’s drawing everything in,” including possible contaminants. Erring on the side of caution, Kresbach said the city is treating this as an emergency. “We’re going to treat it like we don’t know” if it’s contaminated, he said. Kresbach said that when flushing fire hydrants, the water – at first – was “pretty orange” before eventually turning crystal clear. In the meantime, the city will take five water samples – “scattered from the four corners (of the city) and one from the center of town” – and take it to First District Health Unit in Minot.
