Man's sewer quest finds no answers

For a full decade, Bill Myers has been trying to convince the Bigfork County Water and Sewer District Board, county and state officials that there's a sewer-line leak on his Bigfork Bay property.

He's documented suspicious-looking soil exposed during excavation projects and has had the soil tested.

He's had numerous public officials and engineers look at his property, especially a suspicious 12-foot fertile triangle of land near the shoreline that doesn't freeze over in winter and is 'squishy" in the summer, requiring mowing three times a week.

He has relentlessly lobbied the sewer board to abandon a line across his property and reroute it uphill.

"I'm a very persistent guy," said Myers, who operates Pointer Scenic Cruises on Flathead Lake.

But after dogging officials all those years, no one - except Myers' neighbor Tom Lewis - believes there's enough evidence of a sewer leak to warrant concern.

Myers admits that what he's got is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that the line is leaking into Bigfork Bay.

"I can't give conclusive, in-court evidence," he said.

Engineers have told Myers that any e-coli bacteria - something that could be a smoking gun - typically is absorbed by the soil. And even if the latest soil samples show elevated levels of nitrates and phosphates, "it won't prove without a doubt that there's a sewer leak," he said.

Officials at all levels of government say that the one thing that could unequivocally prove a leak is flowing sewage, and that hasn't been found.

"I'm damned every way," Myers said.

SEWER District Manager Julie Spencer has been to Myers' property several times to check out his allegations.

The sewer main in question was installed in 1964, and when an extensive inspection in the mid-1990s revealed the need for repairs in several areas around Bigfork Bay, a plastic liner was inserted to reinforce the line.

"This is a process of installing a new PVC sleeve into the existing sewer main from one manhole to the next, creating a new seamless pipe inside of the deteriorated original pipe," Spencer explained.

Last year, the line was cleaned and a camera inspection was performed at Myers' request. No evidence of a leak was revealed.

Spencer said she has walked along the bank of Myers' property and has found no indication of moisture coming through the bank. Flathead County Health Department and state Department of Environmental Quality officials have done similar inspections.

"None of us have seen an indication of a leak," Spencer said.

As for the 'squishy" triangle, it may be a spring, she said. "Water bubbles up very near the bay."

Myers recently had a retaining wall torn down to be rebuilt, and said he believes there was evidence of brown sewage stains in the wall's drainage-pipe holes. Spencer contends the brown stains were rust.

Every spring, Myers said, there's brown slime covering the river bottom that's exposed by the low lake level.

"This river bottom smells

like crap," he said. "This brown river muck is some of the stinkiest stuff I've ever smelled in my life."

Spencer said a leak was found a year ago in the area where a pressurized main crosses from the lift station on Lake Avenue to a gravity line. That leak quickly was repaired before any sewage entered Flathead Lake, she said.

Ed Coleman, complaint management section chief for the DEQ's Enforcement Division, said the state investigated after the agency got a complaint of sewage "percolating up" a year ago, but found the sewer district had repaired the leak and removed contaminated soil.

Coleman said Myers filed a complaint earlier this year about an alleged leak affecting the triangle-shaped section that was thawed in midwinter. The triangle is directly below the manhole on his property.

"We got photos from a Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist and there was no evidence of any kind of sewage leak," Coleman said. "It could be an underground spring."

The sewer district sampled sludge and gravel on March 17 and test results showed no detectable levels of sewage contamination.

"When Mr. Myers finds surfacing or flowing sewage, we would trace it to a source," Coleman said. "We have no clear evidence of a sewer-line leak and we consider the complaint closed until there's any new evidence."

Jeff Larsen of Larsen Engineering inspected Myers' property recently and agreed with Coleman's assessment.

"If there was a leak, you'd see something flowing," Larsen said.

TOM LEWIS, who lives on the bay just west of Myers' property, said he's not convinced there isn't a problem.

"I've been under the impression for years that it is leaking," Lewis said about the sewer line that runs along the shore across both Myers' and Lewis' property.

"I'm still, if not convinced, I'm frightened at the lack of concern. A major sewer line running that close to the bay is a frightening prospect," Lewis said.

Bigfork Bay features a public swimming access, and across the bay Marina Cay Resort is situated.

Lewis hired a hydrologist to test the bay water, but other than some heightened areas of phosphates, there was no incriminating evidence.

"I turned [the results' over to the sewer department and they said they don't use [that kind of] information. DEQ says the same," Lewis said, adding that he's also put his concerns on the record for the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee.

"We treasure this little bay and we're concerned about how the water is treated," he said.

Lewis also is concerned that shoreline erosion may one day affect the sewer line, and acknowledged that if it were abandoned, it would benefit him.

Myers repeatedly has asked that the line be condemned and relocated.

Flathead County Commissioner Dale Lauman inspected the shoreline last month and said he is concerned about how close the line is to shoreline erosion. Lauman said he intends to talk to Spencer about closely monitoring that area.

"There potentially could be some problems there," Lauman said.

Myers and Lewis offered to pitch in $25,000 apiece some time ago to relocate the line. At the time that would have covered roughly half the cost of the relocation, Spencer said, but by taking the flow from the shoreline sewer line and putting it into another line, the bigger expense would be increasing the capacity of that main to the treatment plant.

"When the time comes to replace the main on Mr. Myers' property, it will be replaced, but not moved," Spencer said. "Moving this main would be an expensive, unjustifiable burden to the district's ratepayers."

Getting a stormwater system in place for street runoff into the bay is a bigger priority, she said.

"Everything on the street gets washed into the bay," Spencer said. "That's a lot bigger risk."

Max Lauder, a design review engineer for DEQ, said he inspected the site a couple of years ago and didn't see anything to be concerned about. The concept of pumping the sewage uphill is an option that's been looked at by several people, he said.

"We try to keep an open mind to making things better," Lauder said. "We try to help. We don't direct and say, 'You must do this.'"

Coleman said there are no laws governing how close sewer lines can be to a body of water. Sometimes they run under the water.

"The lines are legal," he said about the sewer line along the bay. "There are a lot of 'what if' scenarios, but we can only enforce the law."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com