DEQ fines Bigfork Water and Sewer

By MIKE RICHESON

Bigfork Eagle

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently closed its enforcement action against the Bigfork Water and Sewer District for violations of the Montana Water Quality Act.

During the last Fourth of July weekend, the plant’s headworks became clogged with trash. Paper products obstructed the intake screens, and untreated sewage flowed out of the plant and into a storm drain that discharged into Flathead Lake. This discharge was a violation of the district’s discharge permit and the Water Quality Act.

To address the violation, the DEQ issued an administrative compliance and penalty order that required the sewer district to develop and implement an interim action plan to prevent future overflows. The order also assessed a $6,325 penalty, which Bigfork Water and Sewer paid last December.

“We asked them to apply the fine to what we are trying to remediate, but they decided not to,” Julie Spencer, district manager said. “We were already in the design phase to fix it, and we reported the problem to the DEQ. We’ve never had a fine before.”

This summer, Bigfork Water and Sewer will begin a series of upgrades that will double the plant’s capacity to 1 million gallons per day by 2011.