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Hello Mayre,
On Friday, 2/16/24 we filed a formal letter of complaint with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in Helena asking that DEQ, under their legal duty to administer the Montana Water Quality Act and other pertinent water supply, distribution, and treatment statutes, to inform and direct the Board of the Lakeside-County Water and Sewer District (LCWSD) to table any consideration of signing of contracts, which would transfer over $21,000,000 of county federal funds dedicated to addressing septic waste disposal issues in Flathead County to the LCWSD. We are told these contracts will be on the LCWSD's board agenda for consideration and possible approval on Tuesday 2/20/24 at 2pm.
We took this action because after well over a year of following and reviewing the work of this board we are alarmed by the numerous unsubstantiated claims the LCWSD board and its consultants are making that they can fulfill these multi-million-dollar contracts. In our complaint we asked the DEQ to immediately evaluate, document, and verify the claims being made by LCWSD,--- claims that have become the basis of Flathead County’s proposal to fund LCWSD for the handling of up to 60,000 gals per day of septic waste and wastewater treatment through a proposed, but highly questionable, still un-permitted, and risky ground water injection system for this location. The LCWSD facilities sit over a very shallow and fragile alluvial aquifer hydrologically connected and one mile north of Flathead Lake.
As you are aware, for over a year now we have been monitoring and testifying about water quality issues associated with the proposed significant expansions and changes to the operations at the Lakeside County Sewer and Water District (LCWSD) and regarding the proposed Flathead County’s Septage Treatment and Composting Facility.
As outlined here, to the best of our knowledge at this time, in recent months major changes have come to light as to what is being proposed or changed including:
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Flathead County engineering consultants at the end of 2023 blindsided the county by almost doubling their costs estimates as to what it would cost to build the proposed Flathead County Septage Treatment and Composting Facility from approximately $20,000,000 to $40,000,000.
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Flathead County looked at cutting cost by dropping the compost facility and simply taking the semi-treated human effluent solids from the septic waste to the Flathead County Landfill for burial there--as the three cities currently do with their solids from sewage waste at their city Sewage Treatment Plants. But the cost for Flathead County was still not workable and LCWSD, was failing to get the permits it needed to fulfill its existing contact with Flathead County to take this added semi-treated human effluent waste from the yet to be built County Composting facility. The State DEQ must first approve the new waste systems LCWSD had already contracted to provide the county. (DEQ was instead raising important concerns with this proposal.)
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LCWSD must now also deal with new studies that show their current and future holding and treatment ponds are subject to risk of failure due to unstable soils in the area as well as the fact they or close to or may be, exceeding capacity. These ponds have never been pumped to remove settled human waste stored there since they were built in 1988. It is also not clear that the LCWSD ponds have had the required testing performed for leakage from these ponds--but the letter we sent to DEQ on 2/15/2024 insists this must be done now if it has not yet been done as reports suggest it may never have been done. Neighbors claim that thick algae growth now covers many of the small ponds, sloughs and irrigation ditches in the area of the LCWSD facilities and odors and health concerns are an ongoing issue.
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LCWSD's board recently decided to not continue to expand their practice of using settling pond storage/treatment and spray application for the increasing volume of sewage they were and would be receiving into the future and to instead apply for a ground water discharge permit into the shallow and fragile alluvial aquifer their facilities sit on just one mile north of Flathead Lake. (Established science shows that the aquifer under LCWSD property is hydrologically connected to Flathead Lake.) DEQ has sent LCWSD two letters of "Deficiency" saying that LCWSD has not yet provided sufficient evidence that ground water injection would not harm water quality in this area.
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Cooper Farms a proposed 700 unit subdivision that shares a border with LCWSD applied for a water right to draw 300 gallons per minute of ground water for their subdivision and, concerned in part as to how this withdrawal might draw in pollution, Citizens for a Better Flathead and some 23 others filed a legal objection to this water right to insist that water quality issues and more be examined. This is likely to go to trial this fall.
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Flathead County opened a new bidding process to see if there was another private company who would come forward with a new proposal within their budget to build the Septage Treatment and Composting or simply a Dewatering Facility. Three Companies applied, but it is not clear how their bids were considered.
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LCWSD, did not bid, but after the close of the deadline for bids ,thus sidestepping the information requirements of the bidding process, sent their engineer to the county to deliver a formal letter and conceptual plan saying that they could take all the county's septic waste--60,000 gallons per day of septic waste (not clear if this is just liquids and how much the more the volume of solids may be) but their proposal to the county was without real proof like an the engineering stamp normally needed to validate the information submitted and without any evidence of the permits needed from DEQ to take this waste.
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Flathead County, while it not clear who directed county staff to move forward, the county staff prepared a series of draft contracts with terms protective of the county to do the following: to sell the County's Dyre property recently purchased by the county for the composting facility to the LCWSD, to accept LCWSD's proposal to take all county septic waster for the next 20+ years, and for the transfer of some $21,000,000 in federal ARPA funds to LCWSD for facilities and treatment of all county septic waste. These still draft contracts could be voted on this Tuesday, Feb. 20th at the LCWSD 2pm board meeting.
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Citizens for a Better Flathead and North Shore Water Alliance who has been speaking up and working with us closely on these issues, on 2/15/2024 jointly sent the above noted letter of complaint to DEQ asking them to stop these votes and to require LCSWD to have permits in place and studies in place to back them up before any votes can move forward.
If you live in the LCWSD service area and use their services, the board should be notifying you of every step they are taking so that you have a voice in what is decided and in how their actions will be beneficial, or not to the district and how it might affect your current sewer and water fees. But our experience is that LCWSD Board:
- Operate without any bylaws,
- Only post vague uninformative meeting agendas on the door of their office the Friday prior to the third Tuesday of the month when their board meetings are held,
- That they refuse to post their agenda on their web site for everyone to have easy access to it or to even email it if we request it,
- They hold meetings in the middle of the workday making it next to impossible for the working public to attend,
- Requests for documents must be in writing and take in our experience weeks or longer to get.
- We are still researching this, but it appears that the LCWSD is not in compliance with state laws that require much more extensive public notification and scheduled public hearings on many decisions they make.
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In contrast we appreciate that the staff at Flathead County have been helpful and transparent in getting us information and listening to our concerns--though we wish they would commit to earlier notice and opportunities for public comment on such important issues--and in this case the fate of the valley's water quality.)
Email us at Citizens@Flatheadcitizens.org and let us know if this email was helpful to you. Let us know if you share our concerns. We will do our best to let you know of opportunities to speak up on water quality issues like this.
If you can please attend the Tuesday February 20th, 2pm, LCWSD Board meeting at 253 Bierney Creek Rd, Lakeside, MT.
A small period of public comment is allowed at the
beginning of each meeting.
Note the board meets in a small room in the building behind
its office which fronts Bierney Creek Rd.
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