WARM SPRINGS, Ore. — After several days, water service on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in north central Oregon is resuming, although with an indefinite boil water notice.
Community radio station KWSO announced that repairs on a damaged electrical transformer at the water treatment plant finished Tuesday, allowing the Agency Water System to resume distribution, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
When a fire was discovered in the transformer Friday, officials and residents were concerned the damage could lead to an extended water outage but the damage was not as extensive as initially thought.
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is also offering bottled water at the emergency management office until the boil water notice lifts, which is likely to be sometime next week.
It’s the latest chapter in years of issues with the reservation’s aging water system, which has included outages, broken pipes and contamination that prompted several lengthy boil-water notices.
The boil water notices prevent the possibility of illness as water resumes, and give the water agency to complete Environmental Protection Agency-required tests.
