Bigfork Water and Sewer District looking at new well

A new well may be on tap for the Bigfork Water and Sewer District.

That’s the word from Julie Spencer, the district’s manager.

The district currently has two wells it uses three miles north of Bigfork, but needs to provide for future growth and in case one of its pumps stops working. The district has used two wells since 1992 or 1993, she said.

The state Department of Environmental Quality is requiring the district to pursue another well. “We’re at the point where they think we need a third well,” Spencer said.

The district is currently in preliminary discussions with two property owners who own land adjacent to where the district wants to put the new well, which is located on 1.5 acres. The district’s two operating wells are also located on that property.

Spencer notes that there needs to be a 100-foot well protection zone for every well the district uses, hence the need to get approval from the adjacent land owners.

The Bigfork Water and Sewer District currently has just under 1,200 connections, Spencer said. The number of undeveloped lots is somewhere between 700 and 800.

“We’ve had a lot of growth in the last 10 years, and have a lot of potential growth with lots that haven’t been developed,” she said.

Septage disposal

There are currently more than 22,000 septic tanks in Flathead County. The effluent, which is called septage, that is created by these septic tank systems is currently trucked to eight farms in the county.

That waste cannot be deposited onto the Bigfork district’s land, Spencer said, noting that the district is only permitted to inject its own treated sludge at its septage treatment site.

The Bigfork Water and Sewer District owns 317 acres off Highway 82 that it uses for injection of its septage and leases to a local farmer.

The district purchased the land in 1998 and uses 30 to 40 acres for septage injection, Spencer said.

The district leases the rest of the land to Dan Brosten, who uses it to farm small grains such as barley, wheat, lentils and oats. Brosten leaves one-third of the land fallow each year on a rotating basis, according to Spencer.

The district gets one-third of the profit from Brosten’s crops, which it uses to pay down the mortgage for the land and equipment, including sludge pumping stations and a holding tank, Spencer said.