County approves buying land for septage facility

Flathead County will purchase 36.9 acres in Lower Valley with the intention of developing a regional septage treatment facility on the site.

County commissioners in March rejected the property on Wiley Dike Road, but on Thursday unanimously approved the purchase at $1.5 million. The county estimates that the plant could be functional by the end of 2025.

“It’s time to move forward with this,” said Commissioner Pam Holmquist, who was the only commissioner who voted in favor of the purchase in the spring. “This is direly needed. The county staff has done a lot of work on this to look at properties and now is the time to move forward.”

More than a dozen sites were examined in the process of seeking a location for the facility before and after the commissioners’ last vote, according to the county. County Administrator Pete Melnick said the Wiley Dike Road property met the county’s criteria for price, acreage required and ability to connect to a sewer and water district.

Commissioner Brad Abell said the facility would be constructed with the highest technology.

“It will protect the groundwater of our aquifer and our county,” he said. “This is something we need to do.”

The county has set aside about $15 million for the plant from American Rescue Plan Act funding and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Of that, about $7 million must be expended by December 2025.

NEIGHBORS OF the property have been adamantly opposed to the facility’s location on Wiley Dike Road, while environmental and health officials say the facility would address a major concern regarding septic leachate pollution from septic tanks in the Flathead Basin.

Jennifer Tipton said the location of the facility in a rural area next to homes doesn’t make sense.

“This will concentrate the entire county’s waste around my family and neighbors and near Flathead Lake,” Tipton said.

During public comment on Tuesday, Jason Mahlen told commissioners that his family has worked hard to make a home on a property that was very little when they purchased it. Now they wish to pass that home to their children and grandchildren, but the plans for the facility make that uncertain.

“It does not take a genius to figure out no homeowner wants the county to build a septage bio waste composting facility next to their property,” he said.

Former Flathead County Health Officer Joe Russell spoke in favor of constructing the facility saying the county has been working on the issue for 20 years. Increasing development combined with a decrease in property available for land application for septic tank pumping has created a major issue the county needs to address, he noted.

“We’re running out of time,” he said. “This is the right thing to do and this is the right time to do it.”

The Evergreen Water and Sewer District supports the facility, the district’s general manager Cynthia Murray said. The Evergreen district includes about 1,600 septic tanks and generates about 350,000 gallons per year in septic tank pumping.

“We have great concerns about how those septic tanks will be pumped going forward,” she said. “This facility is so important for the future. What the county is doing is forward-thinking and responsible for the citizens of the county.”

According to county figures, on any given day up to 40,000 gallons of septage waste needs to be pumped from septic tanks and treated, and to address the issue the county has been considering construction of a regional septage treatment and biosolids composting facility.

As part of that treatment process, the county needs to discharge treated septage into a sewer plant.

Commissioners on Thursday also approved an interlocal agreement with the Lakeside Water and Sewer District, which plans to accept the septage once it has been treated to residential strength. The county agreed to pay Lakeside $1.8 million as a connection fee and would also pay by volume to discharge into the system.

Commissioner Randy Brodehl voted against the agreement which requires the county to pay a part of a connection fee upon closing on the property purchase. He voiced discomfort with the contract because Lakeside hasn’t yet obtained approval from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in the form of a permit.

“My concern is putting that money at risk,” Brodehl said. “Lakeside will likely get the permit, but I still don’t see that as enough of a guarantee.”

Lakeside has agreed to accept 20,000 gallons on average when the plant starts.

It has also agreed to reserve an additional 40,000 gallons of capacity pending the district’s approval of an application with the DEQ to increase its capacity. Approval of the permit is estimated to be granted by the end of the year, and expansion of capacity is expected to be completed by January 2027.

The county has an estimated 30,000 septic tanks, which provide the primary treatment of wastewater before it discharges into a drain field, but some of the leftover matter, known as septage, needs to be removed from the septic tank about every three to five years.

Septic tanks that aren’t pumped can overflow and fail, creating an environmental impact.

Septage from the county is currently disposed of through land application, which includes injecting the untreated septage into the soil.

The new facility would take untreated septage delivered by truck, and then treat it before piping the liquid to a sewer district facility. The leftover biosolids would be converted into compost.