Evergreen sewer issue proves too complex to resolve

After spending the last nine months trying to figure out how to provide utility service to properties located north and east of the Evergreen sewer district, the Kalispell City Council is almost back to square one.

During a workshop on Monday, the council seemed to conclude that supplying service via the Evergreen sewer system raised too many insurmountable difficulties.

Consequently, it closed the door on allowing new subdivisions to connect to the district's lines, except in very specific instances.

One of those instances applies to the 54-lot Kelsey subdivision.

The project on East Reserve Drive is split by the Evergreen sewer district boundaries. The council previously agreed to provide service to the subdivision - and agreed Monday to let any similarly split parcels connect to the district's lines.

However, barring future refinements to the council policy, the only way projects located entirely outside the district can now receive sewer service from Kalispell is by extending the city's infrastructure. People won't be able to connection to the municipal treatment plant via Evergreen's system.

Other than the Kelsey-style exception, this is essentially the same policy that was in place when the year began.

Nevertheless, the council went on quite a journey before coming full circle.

The journey started in January when the Evergreen sewer board sent a letter to the council saying that "continued proliferation of on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems in the Evergreen aquifer [north of the district boundaries] degrades water quality and threatens public health through ground and surface water contamination."

To combat this problem, the board asked Kalispell to reconsider its long-standing policy of not allowing new subdivisions to connect to the Evergreen sewer system. (The policy stemmed from a requirement that projects annex into the city as a condition of service.)

Under the terms of a 1993 agreement, both Kalispell and the Evergreen sewer board must approve any requests to connect to the Evergreen system from property owners outside the district.

Evergreen still has treatment capacity available from the 1993 agreement and could allocate a portion of it to these external projects. It's unwilling to do so, though, because its primary obligation is to serve properties inside the district. It might not be able to do that if it allocates capacity to external subdivisions.

Consequently, the new projects can only connect if Kalispell agree to use its treatment capacity to serve them.

Initially, the council seemed ready to do just that. Following a May 24 workshop, Mayor Pam Kennedy said "the door is open," meaning the city was willing to consider projects on a case-by-case basis.

However, after further investigation, several issues arose.

For example, City Attorney Charlie Harball said that once Kalispell agrees to provide service to one subdivision, Montana's public utility laws might prohibit it from denying service to the next subdivision or the next or the next.

In short, rather than reserve its remaining treatment capacity for projects that can immediately be annexed, the city might end up allocating that capacity to a series of subdivisions that wouldn't be annexed for years.

To some extent, this is exactly what happened when the '93 agreement was signed: After Kalispell began accepting sewage flows from the Evergreen district, more than a million square feet of commercial space was built in the district, rather than in the city, and the district's property values jumped from $30 million to about $200 million today.

The city avoided this problem with the Kelsey subdivision because the connection was specifically approved based on the fact that the project straddled the Evergreen district boundary. That distinction wouldn't apply to most external subdivisions.

The council also couldn't agree on whether service should be available anywhere outside the Evergreen district or only to projects located in areas that might realistically be annexed in the next five or 10 years. There were administrative problems as well regarding how any new customers would be billed and whether service could be shut off in the event they don't pay their bills.

Ultimately, a majority of the council seemed to conclude that serving customers via the Evergreen system was unworkable, and fell back to the previous position of providing service only when developers extend the municipal sewer lines.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com