GROWTH'S SMELLY SIDE

Effluent Key Issue In Montana, Idaho Towns’ Growth

By Headwaters News, 8-03-06

Growth in the Rocky Mountain West is like the sun coming up in the East -- it's a daily thing. Every day, a city council, a county planning board, or a state agency somewhere in the West makes a decision about growth: where and how it can occur, how much, how little -- how high, how big.

And underlying, literally, those decisions are the roads and sewers and water systems -- the infrastructure of the community. In Wyoming, towns and cities hit hard by the influx of workers following the energy development have asked the state for help putting those systems into place. The reasoning of those communities is that the state as a whole benefits from the energy revenue, and the communities at ground zero of that development should be allowed to tap into some of the revenue to accommodate the growing needs for schools and houses.

Although neither Hungry Horse, Mont., nor Murtaugh, Idaho, are struggling with an influx of energy workers, developments have been proposed for those towns that could easily double the populations of those small towns. In Hungry Horse, population 900, a 1,000-unit subdivision is proposed; in Murtaugh, population of about 150, a 47-unit subdivision has been approved.

In both instances, the construction of the new developments hinge on the ability of the communities to handle the wastewater. But in Hungry Horse, the development offers a win-win situation, and in Murtaugh, it's an "upgrade-or-lose situation."

The Hungry Horse News reports today that the developers who want to build a 1,000-unit subdivision on about 90 acres near the Montana community's elementary school.

As part of that development, the developers want to buy some of the school district’s land to build a wastewater treatment plan for the subdivision. They would also allow the school, which now sends its wastewater to system used by nearby U.S. Forest Service buildings, an arrangement that will end in 201l.

As part of the deal, the school’s tennis and basketball courts would be moved – at the developers’ cost – and should the school have to expand in the future – it may have to build up rather than out.

The drainfield for the proposed plant could be used for soccer and football fields. The plant would treat the water before discharging it into the ground, and an irrigation system for those fields is also included in the plan.

According to one school board member, the water discharged from the treatment plant would be clean enough to discharge directly into the South Fork of the Flathead River.

Ultimately, the developers would like the Hungry Horse Water District to assume operation of the plant.

In Idaho, Murtaugh officials were told by the State Department of Environmental Quality that a proposed 47-unit subdivision can’t go forward until existing wastewater treatment problems are resolved.

The town of 150 has not been in compliance with state nitrate discharge rates for three years, and city officials’ approval of the subdivision was premature, according to state officials. The Twin Falls Times-News reports that when an article about the Murtaugh City Council's approval of the subdivision in July appeared in its paper, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality engineer Greg Misbach called Murtaugh’s mayor and said, “We have to talk.”

Murtaugh officials said the town can’t afford the $18,000 to $23,000 it would take to perform the required study of the problem, let alone the cost of upgrading its current wastewater treatment plant.

Murtaugh city officials and Misbach are meeting today to discuss resolution of the town’s wastewater problem.

In the meantime, the developers are reconsidering the size of their subdivision and are contemplating changing the size of the lots to more than one acre apiece, the minimum size under Idaho law for individual septic systems.

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