Draft EA and discharge permit for new Lakeside wastewater facilities released

Lakeside County Water and Sewer District is seeking to expand their operations to handle aging infrastructure and an influx of population, with hopes to begin construction in 2025.  

The Department of Environmental Quality is accepting public comments on a Montana Ground Water Pollutant Control System discharge permit and draft environmental assessment in relation to the proposed project.  

The permit would allow treated wastewater to be put into groundwater via a rapid infiltration system, described as “shallow earthen basins for the controlled infiltration of treated wastewater.” Approval would allow LCWSD to begin Phase I of construction for their new water treatment facility. 

The current facility, near the intersection of Highway 93 and Somers Road, was installed in 1987.  

Roughly seven miles of infrastructure run along Flathead Lake to a treatment plant, which serves Lakeside and Somers.  The headworks screens wastewater before outputting it into a lagoon system with two treatment ponds. Water is treated in the aerated ponds, then transferred to holding ponds before being spray irrigated on farmland leased out by LCWSD.  

“Our capacity shortage is in that [holding pond], because you have to store it all winter,” LCWSD General Manager Rodney Olson said. “So basically, we were looking at building another pond out there to store in the winter. The cost of building another pond with some new rules that had come out just got way out of hand, and we just had to go back to the drawing board and say, ‘Why would we want to put this kind of money into a single pond? We could build a better treatment process out here for the future.’” 

The new facility would include a rapid infiltration system in addition to the existing holding ponds, allowing LCWSD to discharge treated domestic water into groun water on their current site. The groundwater permit would increase the current capacity of 310,000 gallons a day by 200,000 gallons, or roughly 800 potential households’ wastewater.  

Phase I of the plan includes construction of a new screening and grit removal facility and septage receiving and treatment facility. Phase II would be a specialized wastewater treatment facility to handle LCWSD’s normal wastewater flows along with septage, increasing treated water to roughly 900,000 gallons a day total. 

Designs and construction for the new facility are estimated at $26 million, including grant funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Additional funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Western Montana Conservation Commission is pending. 

Rates are not expected to increase in Phase I, but Olson reported LCWSD may need a small state revolving fund loan to support Phase II. That could require some rate increases in the future, with a rate meeting held prior.  

LCWSD started planning for a new system in 2021 and entered discussions with Flathead County. The county health department estimates there are over 24,000 septic tanks within Flathead County lines, and rural development has resulted in a need for treatment and disposal for sewage beyond available wastewater treatment facilities and approved land application sites.  

In March 2024, Flathead County and LCWSD entered an interlocal agreement that the sewer district would accept county sewage, and the county would support an upgraded treatment facility.  

Flathead County sold LCWSD land at 305 Wiley Dike Road purchased with $1.5 million in ARPA funds. Initially there were plans for a facility there, but concerns from the public and reexamination of the project resulted in plans centralized on LCWSD’s current site.  

“We don’t have any plans at all to use [the Wiley Dike Road property] for this process at this time,” Olson said. “It’s hard to turn down land out there if it comes up and if it’s available... just to be able to have that room to grow in the future is really what it’s about.” 

The land instead will be leased out for agriculture.  

More public concern has emerged following the DEQ’s call for comment, mainly concerning dispersal of treated water into the ground water via the rapid infiltration system.  

 “This is, without question, the worst possible location for this major expansion and disposal of septic tank and sewage wastewater in the valley into this shallow aquifer so close to Flathead Lake. While the valley needs a better way to dispose of septic waste, as farmland for spreading this waste becomes developed and less available, the county and cities need to explore better options such as emerging technology for converting this waste into energy and at the very least a location separated from groundwater by hundreds of feet,” Mayre Flowers, Executive Director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, said in a press release. 

Olson claimed that water treated by the new facility will be cleaner than LCWSD’s current final product.  

“Through the process that we’re going through to treat this fluid, it is not raw sewage,” Olson said. “It’s going to be a very well-treated product before it even hits the ground and 78% better than what we’re doing today.” 

The DEQ’s environmental assessment recognizes this. Aquatic life in Ashley Creek and Flathead Lake have seen negative effects, likely due to nitrogen, DEQ noted.  

“The new facility represents a new source of total nitrogen in this location. However, the wastewater and septage to be received and treated by the new facility is wastewater that already exists in the Flathead Lake watershed and is currently treated to much lower standards. This project therefore results in a net reduction of total nitrogen discharged in the greater watershed,” the EA reads.  

In 2023, a groundwater monitoring network was established at the LCWSD site and is expected to provide ongoing, publicly available monitoring of the aquifer should the new process be put in place. Drinking wells are drilled in a deeper aquifer than where water will be discharged and are not expected to be affected.  

“DEQ considered cumulative environmental impacts of the construction and operation of the facility and found no significant adverse effects on water quality, the human environment, or the physical environment,” the draft EA reads.  

Citizens for a Better Flathead claimed the 30-day comment period, open through Jan. 10, was too rushed, particularly given the holidays, and asked for a 60-day extension.  

Should the permit be granted, construction on Phase I is expected to begin in 2025. Discharge to groundwater would not begin until Phase II of construction is complete, with the project expected to be finalized and the facilities operational in 2027.  

To view the draft permit, Fact Sheet and draft EA visit: https://deq.mt.gov/News/publiccomment-folder/PN-MT-24-14-MTX000307 . Comments can be sent to DEQ Water Quality Division, Water Protection Bureau, PO Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620 or emailed to DEQWPBPublicComments@mt.gov. 

To learn more about the facility upgrade project, visit https://rpa-hln.com/lcwsd/.