Save our Waters

SEELEY LAKE - Seems with everything these days money is always a factor. It mostly is everyone's first priority but why won't that change? For the sake of the environment and ourselves, why can't money be our last priority?

Seeley Lake isn't getting any smaller and no one in town that I know of would want our lakes and rivers to become unsanitary for recreational sports and for the animals that depend on them. Not many people think about where our waste goes and not very many people would think that it affects the lake in such a great way. Our environment is a fragile place and no amount of money should be a factor in trying to keep it healthy. Unfortunately, there is no way around the money but that shouldn't stop us from having a sewer treatment plant to help save our lakes.

You might be wondering why we need a treatment plant now if we haven't had one for all these years. You are allowed to wonder that but you need to look at what the consequences are for not having a plant for all these years.

One main consequence is there could eventually be no more lake fun. Most of the town's revenue is made during the summer months and if the lake keeps receiving the town's waste, when summertime comes around, people won't want to go into the lake because it's so gross.  

Some of you might be against having a plant because it means another bill on top of water and electricity bills but wouldn't you rather pay a little bit more money a month to save your lake?

Also, lakes would not be the only things affected. Groundwater could get higher levels of phosphates and if you have well water you will have to go through more filters a year costing you more money as well.

No matter what, there is a money factor in this situation, but people need to look at the bigger picture and think less about their money and more about the environmental surroundings. Would you rather have a little more money or have sanitary lakes and water to drink that doesn't come from factories?

On Nov. 19, 2015, I attended a Seeley Lake Sewer District board meeting and asked the board a couple of questions. They told me that the Rural Development Grant, through the US Department of Agriculture, will fund the construction of the treatment plant through grants and loans, and the proposal is sitting in Washington, D.C. waiting on Congress to confirm the grant. Also, they informed me that everyone in the sewer district will be paying for the water to be treated. How the people will pay has not been decided yet.

Bob Skiles, owner of Clearwater Towing Service [and sewer board member], said, "We need to protect the waters and we feel like we're in charge of protecting the water that goes from right here into the lake and into the rivers.  Not acceptable for me personally to see it go into the river, and it doesn't make any sense that we are putting stuff in the ground that can hurt our rivers. I'm here to say that is what we are trying to get rid of."

The board told me that the main argument against having the plant is that people don't understand what the sewer will do to the town of Seeley and eventually, "If we don't do anything about our waste, we could end up like Butte."  

"Seeley Lake is the largest town in the State of Montana that doesn't have a sewer treatment plant," Skiles said. After going through the treatment, the water will be absolutely drinkable before it is sent on into the lakes and rivers.

Essentially it comes down to two things that you should ask yourself about the sewer: Would you rather pay to keep your rivers and lakes clean of our waste that can do so much damage to fish and animals and ourselves? Or would you rather sit back and watch your lakes and rivers become more and more unhealthy? Playing on the lake in the summer almost every day, I would hate to see the lake become unusable for the public.