SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Sewer District Board held a public hearing on updating the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) and Environmental Assessment (EA) for Phase 2 of the collection system Sept. 6. The district is in the process of applying for funding for Phase 2. The hearing was a repeat of a May 3 hearing because one of the funding agencies did not accept how the May hearing was publically noticed.
Great West Engineering submitted an application this spring for funds from the Treasure State Endowment Project (TSEP) through Montana’s Department of Commerce. The district received notice in July that the application was missing documentation that the EA was made available to the public for reviews and comment.
Great West Engineering’s Amy Deitchler, PE, presented information from the PER update for Phase 2 of the collection system. The current PER for the project was done in 2012.
Some of the existing problems within the district listed in the PER are: high septic tank densities, small property lot sizes, shallow groundwater, septic contamination of groundwater and the flow of contaminated groundwater toward the lake and Clearwater River.
According to the PER, 40 percent of the properties in the district are only a quarter of an acre in size. Deitchler explained that the small lot size means that there is no replacement area for current septic drain fields. In order to make onsite septic systems work on small lots, many use cesspools or seepage pits.
Cesspools do nothing to treat waste and can allow raw sewage to leak into the ground. Seepage pits, sometimes called “rings,” use a septic tank to separate and treat solids but then instead of a drainfield they have rings. Drainfields spread out the wastewater fairly close to the surface of the ground whereas the rings are put deeper into the ground and concentrate the wastewater. Due to the higher concentration and deeper construction, seepage pits don’t treat contaminants as well as drainfields.
The district has been monitoring three test wells. One of those wells is showing a steady climb toward the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPE) limit of 10 mg/L of nitrates while the other two wells average about half the limit and are either climbing slowly or not climbing at all. Deitchler said the district has not studied why the one test well is climbing while the others were essentially flat. She theorized that the one test well might be at a point where the contaminated ground water is converging.
The proposed sewer would address these concerns by treating sewage to a high level.
Phase 2 expands in three directions off of Phase 1’s collection system. The three areas are: 1) The residential area north and east of the Seeley Lake Elementary (SLE) to Cedar Lane and Tamarack Drive. 2) The east side of Highway 83 between Redwood Lane and the Wilderness Gateway Inn. 3) Properties between the lake and Highway 83, north of Lindey’s Prime Steak House to the intersection of Highway 83 and Cedar Lane.
The collection system for Phase 2 would be a combination of gravity and pressure systems. There are several properties along the lakeshore that will require grinder pumps. Most of the rest of Phase 2 can be serviced by gravity lines that will flow directly into Phase 1’s collection system or use small lift stations where needed.
The estimate for Phase 2’s collection system in the updated PER is currently $6.5 million. Several funding scenarios for Phase 2 are shown with the best funding scenario estimating landowners would pay $139 per month including debt service for their collection system, debt service for the treatment plant and operating and maintenance costs.
The best funding scenario included the District receiving a 50 percent grant from Rural Development (RD) even though RD has indicated that the best they would do in the future is 25 percent. Deitchler said she felt that based on conversations with RD’s Montana Community Programs Director Steve Troendle the District would in fact be able to receive at least 50 percent but the grant applications would use the 25 percent scenario.
Eligibility for grants is partially based on the estimated cost per month for residents compared to the Department of Commerce target rates. The target rate for wastewater is 0.9 percent of the Medium Household Income (MHI). For Seeley Lake, the target rate is $30.61 per month. At $139.15 per month, residents would be paying 260.5 percent of the target rate. It was also noted that the target rate used the MHI of $40,813 from the 2015 American Communities Survey that includes an area much larger than the sewer district. An income survey might qualify the district for additional grants.
At the May hearing Deitchler said, “I don’t want people to freak out because we are not done finding grants yet.”
Great West has set up a website with information on the updated PER and the EA. Documents including the presentation that Deitchler gave are available to download and view as well as a section to make public comment on the project. The site is: http://www.seeleylakeinfrastructure.com
The board voted to accept the EA so the TSEP grant application could be completed.
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