Lifting of Watering Restrictions

We are pleased to announce that the water level in the tank has recovered enough to ease off on some restrictions. Here are the updated guidelines for watering:

Effective Today (8/1/24):

  • Garden Hoses: You may resume watering with regular garden hoses.

Effective Friday (8/2/24) at 8 AM:

  • Underground Sprinkler Systems: You may turn on your underground sprinkler systems only after checking back here or calling the office at 406-476-3311 to ensure there are no further updates.

Ongoing Conservation Request:

  • Use Water Conservatively: Although restrictions are eased, please continue to use water wisely to maintain tank levels. Avoid over-watering, especially to revive scorched lawns.

  • Optimal Watering Times: Water your lawn at night or late evening to maximize water usage and minimize evaporation. Watering during these times helps your lawn absorb more water, leading to better results.

  • Avoid Watering During Heat and Wind: Watering in the heat of the day or when it's windy leads to high evaporation rates, making your efforts less effective.

Summary:

  • Today (8/1/24): Use garden hoses for watering.

  • Friday (8/2/24) at 8 AM: Underground sprinkler systems may be turned on after confirming no new updates.

  • Conserve Water: Be mindful of your water usage to help maintain the water tank levels.

For any updates or further instructions, please check back here or contact the office at 406-476-3311. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Water System Shutdown Update

2 out of the 3 major breaks have been repaired and water has been restored to the Town. For right now we will need to maintain water usage restrictions. Please no outside watering and only essential usage until further notice. As you’re running your water please just remember your neighbor needs some too. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update when normal usage may resume.

If everyone conserves water we will be up and running in a few days barring any more breaks. If you don”t these restrictions will last a lot longer than they need. Please be considerate of EVERYONE and only use essential water.

ANYONE IN CHARGE OF A SPRINKLER SYSTEM PLEASE TURN IT OFF SO IT WILL NOT RUN AT ALL UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

ATTENTION

PUBLIC NOTICE

Town of Dutton Water System Shutdown

Attention Residents,

Due to multiple breaks in the water system, the Town of Dutton has had to shut down the water supply temporarily. Our dedicated team is working diligently to restore service, and we anticipate that water will be back on sometime today.

Please be assured that there is no immediate public safety concern. However, once the repairs are complete and water service is restored, water restrictions will be in place. These restrictions will remain until our storage tank is back to its working level.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this time. Further updates will be provided as necessary.

Thank you,

Town of Dutton

Water Project 2024

The water project is well underway as some of you may have noticed. We will have periods of discolored water, along with service disruptions throughout the summer. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we undergo these needed improvements.

In previous projects we have replaced the majority of the transmission line coming from the well, which is 5 miles outside of Town. In this project we are replacing the final portion to complete that stretch. With that complete, we are moving into Town to start replacing the aging asbestos cement pipe in the distribution system.

The first phase of this work is the SE portion of Town. This is a great place to start because the existing pipe is only 4 inch, when the rest of the Town is 6 inch diameter. The upgrade in size of the pipe will double the water flow available for fire suppression.

We are also updating our telemetry system that controls our pumps and lets us monitor the system and moving to a more modern SCADA system which will allow us to monitor things more closely, maintain communications between the Water Tank, the Well, the Chlorine Vault, and bring us up to date and ready for the future.

One of the most exiting upgrades will be to our billing system. We are super excited for this upgrade. A lot of folks over the years have been asking if we have an auto pay option, and the answer unfortunately has always been no (we were super happy some years ago when we finally started taking cards).

The new system will allow you to access your account whenever you’d like, pay your bill in a multitude of different ways (including auto-pay), look at your usage and billing history, and allow us to push notifications to all of our citizens.

For us just being able to push notices about service issues, water breaks, potential for discolored water, etc. is going to be a game changer. We look forward to serving the community even more effectively through open, transparent, and non-combative communication!