Septic plan lays out options to protect Whitefish Lake

A proposed wastewater management plan could set a path for how the city deals with failing septic systems around Whitefish Lake.

The committee charged with creating the plan spent the better part of this year drafting the document that lays out options for education and outreach, management, and monitoring. City Council is set to discuss the plan at its Nov. 18 work session.

The Whitefish Lake Institute last year released a study confirming the presence of septic contamination in the lake likely the result of failing septic systems. The study corroborates the results of previous studies.

It found contamination at City Beach Bay, Viking Creek and Lazy Bay, along with designating a few other areas as being at risk for future contamination.

While the Institute’s study says that the lake is still safe, it did prompt the City Council to create a committee to prepare the plan. Institute staff served as facilitators to the committee.

Mike Koopal, Institute director, said the plan contains a few options for the city to consider.

“We hope they’ll at least do education and outreach,” he said. “There’s a range of alternatives that allows the city to mix and match and make the program they want it to be.”

The draft plan involves three alternatives.

The first option is to take no action other than education and outreach. While this alternative requires minimal commitment, it would also do little to address the problem, the plan notes.

The second alternative concentrates on cleaning up neighborhoods identified as a priority. This option sets a tier ranking for problem areas. Tier 1 includes Lazy Bay, Lion Mountain and East Lakeshore Drive, with those set as the highest priority for cleanup. Tier 2 areas include City Beach Bay and Viking Creek, and Tier 3 is Point of Pines area.

In the third option, a policy measure would be added to curtail or prevent future contamination from aging or failing septic systems. Included are guidelines for a septic system maintenance and an inspection program.

It also sets out potential sewer connectivity requirements. For homeowners looking to install a system or those with a failing system, those properties would be required to connect to city services if it’s available within 200 feet of the property line.

Committee member Ben Cavin has expressed concerns with the management plan, including the tier system and what he says is a lack of a mechanism to assist homeowners with upgrading their septics.

“I’m not against the concept of protecting and improving lake quality, but I found a few things objectionable,” he said, noting that he voted against recommending the plan to the council.

Cavin, who lives on Houston Drive, said the inclusion of East Lakeshore Drive in the highest priority doesn’t make sense. He points out that the WLI study didn’t find evidence of human waste in the area, and therefore believes it should be lower on the list.

In addition to being critical of how the rankings are organized, Cavin said he feels the plan should not include a tier system until there’s more evidence to support it.

Koopal points out the tier rankings are not set in stone. He said that if further engineering studies are completed, those will ultimately provide the information needed to determine the most critical areas and the mitigation necessary.

Cavin also believes that the plan should include a mechanism to assist homeowners with the costs associated with upgrading septic systems.

He said forcing homeowners to sign waivers of annexation when they connect to city services is unfair. He claims that, if annexed into the city, some homeowners face a 50 percent increase in property taxes in addition to the actual cost of connecting to city services.

“To be successful at protecting the water quality we need to get people to cooperate,” he said. “There needs to be subsidies for owners to help with construction costs.”

Included in the management plan is an outline of how the city could go about obtaining funding for more evaluation and mitigation.

If the city decides to implement the program it’s expected to be a 10-year process and would likely be done in phases.

Some options, such as education and outreach, could begin immediately, while implementation of the more extensive options would take years to complete.

The report sets out a plan of applying for grants beginning in 2015 that would allow for preliminary engineering to further define problem areas and mitigation tactics. Then based on funding and the engineering reports, mitigation could begin in 2017. It’s estimated that cleanup would run through 2019.

The city has ruled out any contamination coming from its own system in the Viking Creek area. WLI has performed additional testing in the creek and streams in the drainage to determine the cause of the contamination and is expected to release the results soon.

The plan also calls for two types of monitoring in conjunction with the management program. The city public works would conduct ongoing sewer inspections to determine the condition of city systems. Whitefish Lake Institute would develop a long-term monitoring plan that would measure the effects of wastewater systems on the lake and its tributaries.