Rocky Boy official goes to trial over contaminated water probe

HELENA — The former head of the Chippewa Cree Tribe’s water resource department went on trial Monday on charges that he lied to federal authorities investigating a contaminated drinking water tank used by dozens of homes on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation.

Jonathan Jay Eagleman has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to a federal agency and demanded a jury trial, which got underway Monday in U.S. District Court in Great Falls with jury selection and opening arguments.

On Aug. 30, 2012, two workers for the tribe’s water department found the hatch of a water tank that feeds 35 homes had been broken into, according to federal prosecutors. The workers found cow feces, wooden boards and concrete had been thrown into the water.

The operator of a public water system that has been contaminated must immediately notify the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The workers told their boss, who told Eagleman, but the break-in was not reported, prosecutors said.

The tank was shut down, but the water was not purged and remained in the system for 25 days. Only when a resident of the reservation posted about the break-in and contamination on Facebook on Sept. 22, 2012, did Eagleman decide to report it to the EPA, prosecutors said.

Eagleman told EPA and public health officials that the break-in was discovered on Sept. 24, and that workers had checked the tank three days before and it was secure, prosecutors said.

Test results from samples of the water found it was positive for E. coli. It is unclear whether anybody who drank the water was sickened.

“Based on false information and omissions provided by Eagleman to the EPA, possible impacts to human health were not properly evaluated consistent with the time frame the public was exposed to tainted drinking water,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean wrote in a trial brief on the case.

If he is convicted, Eagleman faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.