Commission to review contract for septic waste, biosolids facilities

The Flathead County Commission will review Tuesday a nearly $700,000 design contract for facilities to help stymie mounting sewage issues.

To include odor control measures, the proposed contract is with HDR Engineering in Billings to select potential sites and design facilities for a new regional septage treatment and biosolids composting operation.

The meeting starts at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday with public comment. The commission meets at the Flathead County Courthouse, 800 S. Main St. in Kalispell.

Waste treatment would also include effluent disposal. The biosolids composting facility would service the septage plant, as well as Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls, according to the commission’s meeting agenda.

The operation potentially also would serve other neighboring communities such as Polson, according to the agenda.

Work under the proposed contract is expected to be completed by Dec. 31 and ultimately include a final site plan and estimated project cost to actually build the facilities.

HDR would handle project management, among other tasks that include stakeholder and public meetings, according to its scope of services.

The scope noted that the new treatment plant could handle an estimated 5 million gallons of septage, annually, including effluent disposal.

HDR also plans to develop 20- and 40-year growth projections for the county.

In a related measure Tuesday, the commission is expected also to review an American Rescue Plan Act grant management plan for federal monies received for the planned facility.

The plan details various roles and duties for those administering ARPA funding for the project.

The City-County Board of Health advertised a request for qualifications for the waste facilities this past fall, as previously reported by the Inter Lake.

The county received $2 million in ARPA funds through the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and will use the money to begin design work and identify potential sites, according to Inter Lake archives.

County Finance Director Amy Dexter told the Inter Lake in October that the county will be required to match grant funding spent on facility design and development.

Overall, the county has accepted $10 million in ARPA funding, which could be sourced to construct the facilities, according to the archives.

Sewage treatment has become a years’ long battle for the county, largely due to growth, but also from a flux in acceptable waste treatment options.

The City of Columbia Falls, for example, had applied its septage waste atop fields west of the Montana Veterans Home for a quarter century before the state deemed the land could hold no more of it.

In recent years, the city has instead hauled annually more than 1,000 tons of the waste to the county landfill.

Reporter John McLaughlin can be reached at 758-4439 or jmclaughlin@dailyinterlake.com