No nitrate problem in Seeley

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 waterfront properties in the county, starting with Seeley Lake, it would more fully identify the nitrate pollution problem. Most of the waterfront properties were developed years ago as family recreation properties and remain in family hands. Most of the septic systems were built before meaningful septic regulations were promulgated and are inadequate and seeping directly into Seeley and the Clearwater River watercourse. And remember our chain of lakes includes Harpers, Placid, Seeley, Inez, Alva, Lindbergh and Holland Lakes.

If the health department was doing its job — protecting public health — it would lead the fight and join with the other 55 county health departments and secure an expanded pot of money from the $1 billion coal tax trust fund for a comprehensive clean-up of all our state’s watercourses. In Seeley, it would inspect and dye-test every waterfront septic and require the owners to clean their system if it failed to pass — with some state financial assistance — and require the testing and clean-up before any property could be resold. Instead, it has adopted ever-stricter septic installation requirements, which in Seeley have restricted affordable housing development and directly contributed to the demise of Pyramid Mountain Lumber.

The current sewer district boundaries are totally inadequate. They do not include the majority of these sensitive waterfront properties and never will. None of the C Street, Lars Kramen, or Westside Shorefront properties across the Dog Town Bridge are within the district boundaries. Many of these cabin sites are built on wetlands.

Let’s get back to the drawing board and drop the current effort to revive the central sewer proposal that was defeated by voters nearly two to one. They wisely understood it is inadequate. Throwing additional dollars at it to reduce the cost to taxpayers and entice resident voters to support this developer-oriented proposal will not protect public health.

Residents should remember and understand that Seeley Lake should more properly be named “Seeley Lagoon.” Both the inlet and the outlet are at the north end of the lake and the south end — where Seeley lies — is at the foot of this lagoon. Historically Seeley was a lake. The outlet was in the C Street area thousands of years ago but it has silted in and now there is close to 20 feet of mud and silt accumulated in Lindeys’ Bay. This silt stores pollutants, folks. Expanded development of this area as the developers propose will only exacerbate the water-quality problem.