Neighbors protest Meadow Lake water well plans

A resident of Garnier Creek Estates and the Garnier Creek Estates Homeowners Association have protested the expansion of the water system by the Meadow Lake County Water and Sewer District.

The District serves the Meadow Lake community north of Columbia Falls and the golf course. It has two existing wells at 734 feet each that provide between  125 and 169 gallons per minute. The third well would provide another 181 gallons per minute.

The wells are “to accommodate the planned development of the largest remaining tracts within the District. In total, 179 additional living units with associated lawn and garden irrigation are anticipated (103 single family dwellings and 76 multi-family units). This addition will bring the District’s total to 660 living units,” an environmental assessment by the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation notes.

The bulk of those units come from the Tamarack Heights subdivision, which was approved last year by the Columbia Falls City Council. 

Garnier Creek Estates resident Paul Kruger has objected to the water usage as has the Garnier Creek Estates Homeowners Association.Their homes are all on individual wells. The subdivision is a five-lot subdivision just to the west of the Meadow Lake development.

The third well, which is also 734 feet, is located at the south end of the Meadow Lake property, which is about a quarter mile or so from Kruger’s home.

Kruger has been down this road before when he lived in eastern Washington, he said. When he lived there, it was a similar situation, where a deep well was dug near his neighborhood. Officials said it would not impact the nearby residential water wells, but he said it did, and some neighbors’ wells went dry, while his had to be lowered in order to hit water again.

“In my opinion, once you start drawing down a lower aquifer, it starts to drain an upper aquifer,” Kruger claimed.

He said at their Garnier Creek home last summer, they noticed a drop in water pressure to about half of what it normally is and Garnier Creek itself, which runs near his house and has a small trout population, almost went dry.

His water later rebounded as winter approached.

But the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in its environmental assessment determined that the Meadow Lake Project  would not have any detrimental impacts. They also claim the upper aquifer is separate from the lower aquifer.

“All impacts to land, water, and energy have been identified and no further impacts are anticipated,” the EA found. In addition, the environmental assessment and drawdown tests of the wells “finds that the diversion and conveyance system is adequate to supply the requested flow rate and volume.”

Kruger was notified on Monday that his objection, which he paid $50 to file, had been denied. The fee itself is required under DNRC administrative rules.

Nate Ward, DNRC Water Rights Bureau Chief, clarified that Kruger’s objection was not denied, it was deemed deficient. 

Kruger said he was unhappy about the process and said one solution would simply be to lower the density of Tamarack Meadows. When the subdivision was approved, residents argued that over and over again.

Kruger claimed that if the subdivision had less density, the resort would need only the existing wells. He said he’s disappointed in the objection process.

“Even with their dismissal of my objection  as ‘lacking facts’ I would have thought that as stewards of our groundwater, and in the public interest, they would at least have addressed some of my points,” Kruger said.

Kruger also pointed to a recent case in Broadwater County where a judge there blasted the DNRC for not protecting aquifers in that county.

In a telephone message, a representative from the Meadow Lake Water and Sewer District said questions about the well and water usage should be referred to the DNRC.