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Local Government • Missoula County Commissioners Public Mtg, 2nd & 4th Thursdays, Courthouse Annex, Room 151, Missoula, 2pm. http://www.missoulacounty.us/government/administration/commissioners-office • Seeley Lake Community Council, 2nd Mon, 6pm, Seeley Lake Historical Museum & Visitors Center, 2920 Highway 83. For the agenda and virtual access visit the Facebook Page for Zoom link. http://www.missoulacounty.us/community/community-councils/seeley-lake-community-council • Swan Valley Community Council, 3rd Tues, 6pm, Swan Valley Commu... Full story
The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board spent a good portion of its November meeting etching out priorities for a potential wastewater treatment system’s location and technology. While a preliminary engineering report is still in the works, the district’s engineering consultant, Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, walked the board through engineering matrices meant to help weigh different elements of project considerations. Typical engineering matrices use locations, scores, rankings and weights, and the combination of all results in a f...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board met last Thursday for a relatively short meeting to discuss ongoing fundraising efforts and the still vacant staff positions. Steve Anderson, engineer with Water & Environmental Technologies (WET), said the engineering firm’s staff continue to work on pursuing grants to help cover costs of creating the preliminary engineering report, which once completed opens the door for other grant opportunities for which the board could apply. WET staff are working through a reclamation and development planning grant a...
In a move meant to champion public sewer systems, Rep. Ryan Zinke expertly tossed a well casing line down a hole drilled some 40 feet into the ground on School Lane near Seeley Lake Elementary School last Thursday. "Well, I did come from three generations of plumbers," the Republican U.S. Congressman reasoned to the small group of civic leaders and reporters gathered around the groundwater monitoring well Zinke had come to test. Reeling in the well water sample - which was later revealed to...
Nearly 60 community members piled into Seeley Lake's Sullivan Community Hall last Tuesday evening to hear what the people vying to represent them in Helena had to say. Sponsored by the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, the candidate debate, moderated by editor Keely Larson, starred seven hopeful state representatives and senators, plus written statements shared aloud by Larson from one absent candidate. Audience members, about a third of whom wore bright red "Ted Morgan" t-shirts in support of House...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board met last Thursday to discuss the process of selecting a wastewater treatment plant site, heard about funding updates and announced the resignation of the board’s secretary and manager. Bill Decker, the sewer district’s manager since the end of 2022, announced his resignation at the meeting on Sept. 19. Decker told the Pathfinder he started to feel like he was going in a different direction than the board, and that it was his time to step down. As a part-time Seeley Lake resident and one that doesn’t live...
At the last sewer district board meeting, there was conversation about how rumors and social media were spreading concerns that often were not based on facts. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the meetings either in person or through zoom. It is only through direct participation that we can move together to an informed collaborative resolution to our increasing nitrate problem. We do have nitrate issues in varying intensity within the boundary of the district. North of town it is nearly negligible. Near the corner of Juniper and Alder,...
The Seeley Lake Sewer Board was presented with conceptual designs from engineering firm Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, for an anticipated sewer project and heard an update on earmarked money for the project from the federal government on July 18. Bill Decker, Seeley Lake Sewer District manager, provided the update about the earmarked money from Representative Ryan Zinke’s office for a sewer project in Seeley Lake. The grant application is making its way through the approval process within the U.S. House Appropriations C...
The Seeley Lake Sewer District met at the end of June to hear an update on the sewer project proposal from its engineering firm and on various funding opportunities available, and considered putting together a letter showing support from the sewer board for the project. Steve Anderson, engineer with Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, gave an update on the project proposal. It will make sense to design treatment zones based on elevation and treatment needs, Anderson said. This could require pump and lift stations, which in the case of l...
In a recent Letter to the Editor, Don Larson contends that the waterfront and riverfront properties are the worst septic effluent polluters on our lakes and waterfront. That is speculation. Even if it were proven to be true, how does that address the known elevated groundwater nitrate issue within the district? Mr. Larson’s comments on testing and repairing waterfront septic systems on all the lakes has merit but again, how does that address the known issue within the district? And, is there any reason why we can’t do what Mr. Larson sug...
Bill Decker sat in the beautifully lit meeting room upstairs in the Barn - what Seeley Lake residents refer to the combo museum, historical society and community meeting spot as - with legal pads and a folder of sewer-related information displayed in front of him. He was explaining a few things about April's sewer board meeting when his phone rang. A representative from Rep. Ryan Zinke's office was on the other line with news of a chunk of money available from the federal government - through...
We don’t have a nitrate problem in Seeley. We have a health department/real estate developer problem. These folks continue to push for a central sewer for the area but the system they are proposing, in the sewer district as it is now drawn, will never clean up or protect the watershed. The present sewer district does not include the worst septic effluent polluters. That would be all the waterfront and riverfront properties on all the lakes. Were the Missoula County Health Department to ever develop the political courage to test all the w...
Primary election ballots were mailed to Montana residents on May 10. The Pathfinder reached out to the 12 candidates running for state House and Senate seats that are relevant to Seeley-Swan area residents to ask them a handful of questions to help voters better understand their prospective legislators. After the decennial redistricting, new maps were drawn by the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission in 2023. That prompted a new district for Seeley Lake, which now lies in House... Full story
The announced closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber on March 14 sent shock waves through Seeley Lake that extended throughout the state and various levels of government. Concern for forest health, Montana’s timber industry and Seeley Lake’s economy and longevity were top of mind. Statements came out from Montana representatives at the federal level to local county commissioners, and solutions — from worker-owned cooperatives to private buyers to a tool launched by the state Department of Labor and Industry to help match laid-off timber worke...
The Seeley Lake Sewer Board authorized Water & Environmental Technologies, or WET, to move forward with a feasibility study for a wastewater treatment system, which will assess things like the project’s schedule, cost, technology requirements and overall viability. While the timeline is uncertain, this step is one towards defining what wastewater treatment will look like in Seeley Lake, which could include different types of treatment in different areas of town. The engineering company expects the first four phases of the study, which i...
More water testing done by the Seeley Lake Sewer District led to a conclusion that nitrate levels in the sewer district are related to human causes, something that has been questioned by the public and backed by the Missoula County Public Health Department for years. Now, the Seeley Lake Sewer District is focusing on moving efforts toward engineering solutions. The announced closure of Seeley Lake’s largest employer, Pyramid Mountain Lumber, one week before the sewer board meeting cast a shadow over the gathering, but some attendees saw the b...
Ballots this year will include a variety of political representatives for people in the Seeley-Swan Valley to choose from as the calendar rolls closer to primary elections, and some opportunities for people to get involved in local boards or districts. So far, it doesn't look like voters in the Seeley-Swan will have any special district or school board elections to vote in, though the school board candidate filing period is open until March 28. Ballot language for things like levies could also b... Full story
Proposed schedule changes at the garbage dump, Special Management Area updates and a forestry report on treatments at local campgrounds rounded out the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting on March 11. Garbage dump schedule change A proposed schedule change for the Seeley Lake Refuse Collection Site, or the garbage dump, led the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting. A 2020-2023 study of the number of site visits per day showed that Sunday had the highest number of site visits at 37%, Wednesday 33% and Saturday at 30%. The proposed new...
The MBR plant will only be an option for the RV park if the Seeley Lake Sewer District elects to share the facility. Without the participation of the Sewer District the RV Park will use another type of treatment, which they currently have a discharge permit for. An MBR system may be a good option for the District, but it is only one of many possible options. The District, along with its professional consultants and the input of District residents, will choose the best, most cost effective treatment, not necessarily being an MBR system. Mr....
RV park owners want to share a wastewater system with Seeley Lake and many experts see it as a good option for the town's wastewater challenges. During last month's Seeley Lake Sewer District Board meeting, members heard about a type of wastewater treatment system possible for a new RV park south of Seeley Lake, which was presented as an option for wastewater treatment in Seeley more generally. This system - called a membrane bioreactor, or MBR - has garnered attention in the past couple of...
The Seeley Lake Sewer Board discussed a model of onsite waste management at a proposed RV park in Seeley Lake, which could serve as a model for the broader community. Quarterly monitoring well data was presented and the Sewer Board approved efforts by Missoula County to monitor nitrate levels monthly. Continued frustrations regarding the transparency of public process surfaced at a Missoula County Board of Health meeting regarding Seeley Lake’s septic system future on Feb. 15, the same day as the Sewer Board’s meeting. At the county mee...
The Missoula County Health Department now requires tighter standards for septic systems in the Seeley Lake Special Management Area (SMA) as officials said the best available data from the area shows any new permit would violate federal drinking standards. While the regulations are different, and no public process was held over the matter, the Health Department argued it has not technically changed the rules. The new guidelines require future buildings to keep nitrate discharge at a lower than...
Water data from the Clearwater Resource Council and the Seeley Lake Sewer District showed an area of concern near Riverview Drive Bridge and highlighted how sediments from burn scars and dirt roads can have an impact on the area's rivers and lakes. Clearwater Resource Council board members Jon Haufler and Karen Williams presented the information to an audience at the Barn on Jan. 9. While much of the data is complex and more analysis is needed, the group has a good understanding of where water...
Thirty-five years ago... Thursday Dec. 8, 1988 Seeley Lake Ranger District gets third award for effort This past summer the Canyon Creek fire on the Lolo National Forest came close to consuming an award winning bridge inside the Scapegoat wilderness. In the summer of 1987, Forest Service employees on the Seeley Lake Ranger District constructed a new bridge over the North Fork of the Blackfoot River. Using materials native to the area and no motorized equipment, the bridge crew replaced three spans of the 90-foot bridge, bridge abutments and...
Seeley Lake, Montana – The Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) recently released a report on the findings of its water quality monitoring over the past two years. CRC collected water samples from six lakes in the Clearwater Valley in 2021 and 2022: Lake Alva, Lake Inez, Placid Lake, Salmon Lake, Seeley Lake and Big Sky Lake. The community of Seeley Lake has no central sewage system, relying on individual septic systems. This has led to concerns that groundwater may be contaminated from poorly functioning or concentrated densities of septic s...
