Sewer asks for $8.1 million bond

Bigfork voters will be asked to approve an $8.1 million bond in July to replace the Village's aging wastewater treatment plant.

The Bigfork Water and Sewer District board approved a resolution for a bond election at its May 12 meeting. The bond will help fund construction of the next phase of the Bigfork Wastewater Treatment Plant — and an upgrade and overhaul of the wastewater plant.

If the bond is approved, that means $71 a year per $100,000 property assessment on taxes for owners in the district, regardless of connection status. The bond will be assessed over the course of 20 years.

Approved or not, locals will be paying for the system; it's a matter of how they want to allocate the costs. If it is not approved, the funds would be achieved through sharp increases in sewer bills — a $39 a month increase. That would be $468 a year on current rate payers' shoulders, district manager Julie Spencer said.

"The decision to pass this resolution appears to be the fairest way to fund the necessary replacement of the aged treatment plant," Spencer said in a prepared statement.

A mail ballot will be sent out to registered voters in the district from the Flathead County Election Department and will be due back by July 27. In order to pass, the bond needs to receive a simple majority of the votes. However, at least 40 percent of voters must respond for the vote to be valid, so participation is key, Spencer said.

The current treatment system at the plant was constructed in 1986 with an anticipated 20-year life-expectancy.

"In spite of improvements and updates, this plant is showing considerable signs of age," Spencer said. "Failures of the plant are costly and can be disastrous to (Flathead) Lake. District employees work diligently to prevent such occurrences, but high summer inflows sometimes stress the plant beyond treatment capacity and mechanical failures complicate matters further."

The expansion also will double the district's existing capacity to be able to accommodate an increase in wastewater projected over the next 20 years.

Mechanical failures in the plant over the past five years have resulted in violations of the discharge permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality that allows Bigfork to discharged its treated sewage into Flathead Lake.

DEQ's new discharge permits have much stricter standards than the current plant is able to comply with. Failure to meet the new standards could result in violations and possible fines.

A good portion of the district is undeveloped or in subdivisions that have not yet been fully developed including Saddlehorn. As new sites come on board, hook-up fees will help defray costs and perhaps pay off the bond sooner, requiring fewer years with the additional costs, Spencer said.

The estimated total cost of the project is roughly $9.6 million. The district has applied for and received grants of about $1.5 million to help reduce the amount of the bond.

The first phase was a Treatment Plant Headworks Replacement Project that involved $3 million of new equipment and building expenses. That work was completed in 2008.