This story originally aired Nov. 6, 2025 while the federal shutdown was still ongoing.
Wastewater operator Amber Fox is responsible for making sure Culbertson’s water is clean.
“It gets overwhelming with how many things there are that you need to learn and you need to understand and do,” Fox says.
The water must meet state and federal standards. Fox is the only operator in the northeastern Montana town. It’s an important job, and sometimes she needs help. So she calls a circuit rider.
“We just had a gal in here earlier today.”
Circuit riders are specialists who support rural water operators with assistance, training and financial planning. Sometimes they even fill in to do critical water sampling during emergencies.
“We had some issues this summer, and they came in and helped us sort some of that out and get it under control.”
There are three circuit riders in the state. Fox says without them, she’d have no one to turn to for help.
They’re employed through Montana Rural Water Systems, an association for water operators. But contracts and funding for their positions come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That funding lapsed at the end of October due to the federal government shutdown.
Ben Rigby is the executive director of Montana Rural Water Systems.
“The perfect storm has happened for this contract. Being a five-year contract, the government is shut down right now — everything is just halted,” he says.
Rural Water Systems is chose to contract out the circuit riders with its own funds for as long as possible — at a cost of about $10,000 to $12,000 a month. But it can’t sustain that for long.
“Three months is my current plan, if you will,” Rigby says.
Even with the government now reopened, the new circuit rider contracts will still need to be worked out before May 2026.
Montana Public Radio is a public service of the University of Montana. State government coverage is funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
