An ERJ-170 with the number two bleed deferred took off from a mountainous airport and received a 'Bleed 1 Fail' alert. The flight returned for maintenance and was told if the fault cleared after the next takeoff to continue with both bleeds inoperative.

Narrative

Flight was diverted back to departure airport because of maintenance issue. Aircraft already had Bleed 2 deferred; and departing climbing through FL220 approximately. 'Bleed 1 Fail' caution message appeared and the plane started depressurizing. We immediately asked Center for a descent; and I took over the radios and controls; while the other pilot referenced the Quick Reference Handbook procedures for the 'Bleed 1 Fail' message. ATC was only able to descend us initially to 15;000 FT because of terrain in the area; but gave us a heading and was able to descend us lower eventually. The message was cleared using the procedure in the Quick Reference Handbook; but we decided it was better to return to ZZZ and have Maintenance look at it rather than fly over the mountain with a chance of the same thing happening. After pulling in to the gate; I wrote up the aircraft. The Maintenance Controller and the Mechanic troubleshot the aircraft and signed off on the write-up and we were OK to continue. Before departing; I personally spoke with the Maintenance Controller and he said if the same thing happened again I was to continue to destination; if we were able to clear the message per Quick Reference Handbook procedures. So; once again we departed and climbing through FL220; approximately again; we had a 'Bleed 1 Fail' caution message appear I took over the radios and control and asked for a descent; and the other pilot performed Quick Reference Handbook procedures and the message cleared. As instructed by Maintenance Control; we continued to destination. Before departing the second time; I discussed with Maintenance Control the issue from Bleed 2 deferral; where the same sequence of events seemed to have happened and eventually led to the deferral. I was not given any guidance other than they could not find anything wrong with Bleed 1 now. This would not have been concerning if we were not departing over the Rockies where we have to deal with terrain; but we followed Maintenance Control and Quick Reference Handbook procedures where it states continue with normal OPS.