The costs of Linda Vista's sewer

SEELEY LAKE - At a recent sewer board meeting Missoula County Commissioner Jean Curtiss delivered a warning that has been echoing throughout the county for decades: "Look what happened to Linda Vista when they turned down funding offers." These warnings have come with all sorts of figures and statements attached about Linda Vista residents such as "They had to pay $20,000 to $30,000 each," "They could have had 90 percent paid by grants" and "They had to pay for it all with no grants."

Residents of Seeley Lake are not alone. The situation at Linda Vista has been pointed to multiple times over the years as an example of turning down funding or delaying projects. Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas referenced it while pushing for sewer along Mullan Road in 2001. Director of Public Works Bruce Bender pointing to Linda Vista while encouraging support for sewer in the Rattlesnake in 2003 as well as many references in letters to editors from the general public discussing various sewer projects.

When most people point to Linda Vista as an example of what can happen when grants are turned down, they are mainly referring to the last time Environmental Protection Agency grants were available to homeowners though Linda Vista had at least two other offers they turned down over the years. The EPA grants for Linda Vista were highly publicized along with the resulting mandated sewer project.

Linda Vista today consists of dozens of supplements or phases on the south side of Missoula. The specific area of Linda Vista that turned down attempts by the city and county in the 1980s and early 1990s is limited to the original Linda Vista subdivision, Linda Vista 1, 2 and 3 as well as some neighboring subdivisions. Though neighboring subdivisions have other names such as Valley Vista they are also included the area generally referred to as Linda Vista.

First documented evidence of Linda Vista's groundwater pollution came with the 1978 Missoula Valley Water Quality Study. Elevated nitrates of 8.76 mg/L were reported.

Testing in 1983 of approximately 50 well showed six wells exceeding the groundwater standard of 10 mg/L with the highest well showing 13.7 mg/L. Similar results were found during testing in 1990. Nearly all of the septic systems in the area used seepage pits instead of drain fields. Officials said that more than half of those systems had failed and had been replaced at least once.

In the late 1980s the city of Missoula had EPA grants to help fund expansion of the municipal sewer. Linda Vista was 1.8 miles to the nearest interceptor main to connect to Missoula's sewer. There was a push to use the grants because in September of 1990 the EPA grant program changed to a loan program.

Early in 1989 Missoula city officials started holding meetings with homeowners of several areas including Linda Vista, Upper Miller Creek, Wapikiya, Bellevue and Cold Springs to explain the EPA grants and other city incentives for connecting to the municipal sewer service.

Neighborhoods that hooked to Missoula's municipal sewer would be annexed into the city as part of the deal and begin paying city taxes. Annexation was a big part of residents concerns about the project.

According to a Feb. 17, 1989 article in the Missoulian, the city set the goal of $2,300 to $2,800 per home for the system. The city offered a $1,000 tax rebate as an extra incentive. Without the EPA grants, it would cost about $8,300 for each home according to the article. However, those numbers would climb before landowners were asked to make their decision.

There was another catch with the EPA grants. Houses built after 1977 were not eligible for the grants. Residents were frustrated that the 1977 cut off wasn't publicized very well.

A letter to the editor from a resident of the Linda Vista area printed April 20, 1989 accused the Missoulian and the city of "providing incomplete information" by leaving out the 1977 cut off for EPA grants. The letter writer states that county officials were quoting homeowners with newer houses approximately $8,700 to connect.

EPA publications from the 1980s confirmed that houses must have been inhabited or in use prior to Dec. 27, 1977 to qualify for grants. The referenced federal code (40 CFR 35.2034) in the EPA publications still exists in the 2017 federal code.

The number of Linda Vista homes built pre-1977 is hard to pin down. However, nearly a third of the lots were not subdivided until 1978. Some of the neighboring subdivisions included in the grant offer were also completed after 1977.

By June of 1990 the price quoted by county and city officials climbed to $5,510 for full sewer service with EPA grants and $12,000 without grants. Vacant parcels would pay $2,250 each for a stub to the property line. These appear to be the final numbers presented to landowners as they were given until June 19, 1990 to return surveys indicating their support for the sewer project.

An article headlined "Linda Vista rejects sewer" appeared in the Missoulian's July 4, 1990 issue. In a final push from the city and county about 200 letters were sent out urging support. Only half the landowners responded with 70 percent rejecting the sewer proposal. The $500,000 in EPA grants that were designated for Linda Vista and neighboring subdivisions were offered to other areas around Missoula.

In the July 4 article, Missoula City-County Environmental Health Director Jim Carlson said he would send a letter to the state Water Quality Bureau raising concerns about violation of the groundwater in the Linda Vista area. The threat was real. A year later the City-County Health Department imposed sanitary restrictions in the form of a special management area.

The following year the state of Montana ordered Missoula County to clean up the groundwater. The county was to create a new, non-polluting sewer district in the Linda Vista area and shut down all septic systems. The county was given two years to complete the task.

The sewer project that followed provided sewer service to approximately 220 lots. Approximately 180 lots paid $10,000 per house in the form of a Rural Special Improvement District (RSID) plus $2,000-$3,000 to connect houses to the sewer. The remaining lots paid between $3,400 and $5,700 in RSID because when they were originally built they were on a local community system so parts of the collection lines were already in place.

Though the EPA grants had expired, the county still secured a $100,000 grant from the Montana Legislature from the coal tax fund and an additional $100,000 from the newly formed Missoula Valley Water Quality District. Half of the grant from the Water Quality District was approved at their first working meeting despite some board members being concerned that a precedent would be set for funding sewer projects. The grants were used to help people with the connection costs.

While residents that met the 1977 threshold for the EPA grants ended up paying significantly more for the sewer infrastructure, there was a small silver lining in how the area was annexed.

In June of 1991 the city passed Resolution 5168 that paved the way for municipal sewer service while putting off annexation if the area did an RSID to fund the sewer project. Annexation would be delayed for up to 15 years or when 50 percent of the property owners were "new" property owners. The resolution states that the 15-year delay would "allow current home owners to pay off a substantial portion or all of the RSID by the time they commence paying municipal property taxes."

In the end, residents of the Linda Vista only put off annexation until late 1999 as a result of crossing the 50 percent threshold. Based on tax records, RSID payments continued until 2014.

Today, sewer bills in Linda Vista are on the same flat rate as the rest of the city. For 2018 a single-family residence pays $180.58 per year.