Public offers mixed opinions on Lakeside sewer permit

Roughly 100 Flathead Valley residents piled into the Lakeside Quick Response Unit Community Room on Thursday to discuss potential changes to Lakeside County Water and Sewer District’s facilities, adding to over 200 comments already received on the project.  

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality held a public hearing regarding a potential groundwater discharge permit and draft environmental assessment for LCWSD, part of a larger plan to update the district’s outdated treatment system and ultimately allow treated wastewater to be released into the site’s groundwater via a rapid infiltration system. The comment period on the project was extended twice, with Thursday as the last chance for the public to have a say before a DEQ decision.  

Views were split in Thursday’s hearing. The majority of speakers were in favor of the permit, composed of public works employees, a few elected officials and members of the public. Flathead County commissioners Pam Holmquist and Brad Abell both spoke in agreeance with the permit, as well as LCWSD general manager Rodney Olson, Columbia Falls city council member Michael Shepard, Whitefish public works director Craig Workman and Evergreen Water and Sewer District general manager Cynthia Murray.  

Proponents argued that Flathead County is in dire need of a place to dispose of septic waste, which would be built along with a screening and grit removal facility in Phase I of the project.  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 II would be a specialized wastewater treatment facility to handle LCWSD’s normal wastewater flows along with septage, increasing total treated water to roughly 900,000 gallons a day.   

With population increases – and septic tank increases – in the valley, proponents found the current solution to be the most reasonable. LCWSD already owns the property near the intersection of Highway 93 and Somers Road where the facility would be constructed, and it would likely be difficult to acquire new land in a competitive market, they argued. Flathead County commissioners already set up an interlocal agreement with LCWSD in March of 2024 to provide ARPA funding for the project in exchange for septic waste acceptance.  

The treatment process at the new facility would also provide an estimated 80% cleaner final product than today's setup. LCWSD’s final product is currently spray irrigated on farmland in the Flathead watershed. According to the DEQ draft EA, the updated facility would theoretically reduce overall nitrogen discharged into the water system. DEQ also requires stringent testing should the permit be issued.  

“This is how we address responsible growth in the Flathead,” commissioner Abell said.  

However, local watchdog groups have stood against the project from the beginning. Citizens for a Better Flathead hired independent hydrogeologists with HydroSolutions Inc. to review the DEQ’s fact sheet and methodology.  

“[LCWSD] completely oversimplified the hydrogeologic conditions associated with the shallow aquifer when evaluating hydraulic conductivities, contaminant travel times, fate and transport modeling, and pathogen movement,” senior hydrogeologist David Donohue said in his report. “The hydrogeologic data were oversimplified and inaccurately used to analyze all aspects of the [rapid infiltration system] plan.” 

CFBF suggested that the complexity of the shallow aquifers located north of Lakeside were not considered thoroughly enough to draw a conclusion on the project’s impact.  

Concerned citizens added that the county was putting too much pressure on a small sewer district by placing a septage receiving facility in Lakeside. The groundwater in Kalispell, they noted, was deeper and it may be less likely to affect the overall watershed if rapid infiltration basins were used there. To move forward hastily could ultimately mean a waste of $26 million taxpayer dollars, the opposition argued.  

The DEQ comment period ended Thursday night, and officials now have 60 days to make a final decision.