Septic system oversight studied for Whitefish

A newly drafted wastewater management plan for Whitefish could chart the course for how strictly the city will deal with failing septic systems within its jurisdiction.

Last year the Whitefish Lake Institute released a study that confirmed pollution in Whitefish Lake due largely to failing septic systems.

It found contamination at City Beach, Viking Creek and Lazy Bay and pinpointed several shoreline areas at risk for future contamination.

The Institute’s probe confirmed a 1980s study that also found contamination in the lake from failing septic tanks. While the latest study concluded recreation is still safe on the lake, it sounded the alarm bell for city officials.

The Whitefish City Council appointed a community wastewater committee to prepare a report and make recommendations to the council regarding wastewater management.

Whitefish Lake Institute facilitated the process and wrote the report.

The council got its first look at the wastewater plan during a work session last week. After general discussion about the alternatives outlined to handle the growing septic program, the council opted to revisit the matter again in a couple of months.

“Everything’s on the table,” Whitefish Lake Institute Executive Director Mike Koopal said. “There’s no agenda from the committee.”

The committee was tasked with providing funding considerations, education and outreach options, management options and a plan for ongoing monitoring.

The report lays out three alternatives.

The first option would be to take no action except education and outreach. While this alternative requires minimal resources, pollution issues on the lake would continue to exist and the lake ecosystem would continue to decline, the report notes.

A second alternative addresses the Whitefish Lake watershed by concentrating on cleaning up areas of known septic contamination identified in the report and prioritized by the committee. It wouldn’t require additional staff and could be handled by the city of Whitefish and its project partners, but this option, too, falls short of addressing future septic system failures.

The second option suggests prioritizing problem areas in tiers, with Lazy Bay, Lion Mountain and East Lakeshore Drive in Tier 1, the highest priority for cleanup. Tier 2 neighborhoods include City Beach Bay and Viking Creek; and Tier 3 earmarks the Point of Pines area.

The third alternative includes cleaning up prioritized areas but adds a policy measure to curtail or prevent future contamination from aging or failing septic systems.

“While this [third] alternative offers the best overall long-term outcome for the resource, it would require the addition of staff, the establishment of a new program that would extend into the Whitefish planning jurisdiction, and work in cooperation with the Flathead County Health Department to enhance current regulation,” the report states.

If the third alternative were adopted, some of the new requirements could include:

v A septic system maintenance and inspection program.

v Sewer connectivity requirements if properties are close enough to city sewer lines.

v No new lakeside individual on-site septic system installations or repairs where a communal septic system is available or where a connection to city sewer could be made.

The third alternative includes site requirements for septic system installations and also would mandate the size of a system based on the number of bedrooms in a home. It further establishes treatment field requirements and outlines an inspection program.

The wastewater treatment plan is a starting place for discussions between Whitefish and Flathead County to created shared goals on how to handle failing septic systems, the report stated.

Voting members of the wastewater committee are Ben Cavin, Andy Feury, Denise Hanson, Pam Holmquist, Bill Kahle, Jim Laidlaw, John Muhlfeld, Jan Metzmaker and Ryan Purdy. Nonvoting members include a number of local government officials and two Whitefish Lake Institute board members.

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