BIGFORK – The three, new, young trees along Grand Drive in Bigfork might not look like much to the untrained eye, but to those familiar with the village’s major stormwater project, the saplings represent a major step toward cleaner rain runoff.
The little trees are planted on top of modern filtration systems called Filterra units, which pick out the phosphorous, nitrogen and metals bound to the soil.
All of these substances are absorbed into the trees and kept out of the village’s bay.
The Filterra units are part of the first phase of the major project, which intends to redo Bigfork’s entire stormwater system to keep undesirable chemicals and bacteria from flowing into the Swan River and Flathead Lake.
“We have almost completed the Grand Drive project,” Susan Hanson, Bigfork Stormwater Advisory Committee chairperson, said.
All that is left to be done is the chip sealing on the street and the lining of a mechanism that goes into the bay, Hanson said. Crews will have to wait until water levels recede before performing the latter.
There is also the matter of only having three trees on top of Filterra units on Grand Drive. There are four filtration systems along the road, Hanson said, and one of them had its tree pulled out by vandals.
The tree will be replaced.
Otherwise, she said, everything in the major project is running according to schedule.
Tests in the past two decades determined that Bigfork’s stormwater drains directly into Bigfork Bay, Flathead Lake and the Swan River, bringing with it toxins, oil and unhealthy amounts of fecal coliform bacteria.
Flathead County created the BSAC to find out how the drainage system – an uncharted maze that has been in place since the mid-1950s – needed to be fixed.
The resulting, three-phase project has been extensive and garnered more than $1 million in funding from various sources.
Phase One began in February, so crews would have a chance to work underground before the groundwater rose, Hanson said. There was initially a problem with some equipment failure, which resulted in a closed road.
Hanson said this caused some concern among business owners, who were worried the construction could ward off the tourists who flock to the village in the summer.
However, save for comments on the dust kicked up by the construction work, Hanson said there have been no complaints since February’s road closure.
“It’s been really interesting. We had a lot of consternation before construction began,” Hanson said. “After it got started, everybody was saying, ‘Wow, this is going beautifully.’”
The first phase of the project also included a hydrodynamic separator on the south side of Lake Avenue, which removes sediments in stormwater runoff before passing into the larger system. This system also traps oil, which can be vacuumed out during maintenance.
Stormwater runoff then enters the Jellyfish system – a filtration system with up to 20 arms. The Jellyfish, in conjunction with the hydrodynamic separator, is expected to treat nearly all of the yearly runoff.
Now, with Phase One almost in the books, Hanson said the next phase in construction – on north Electric Avenue – looks like it will begin in September.
The work will upgrade the underground drainage and filtration systems, but without Filterra units, Hanson said.
Like any construction project in Montana, Hanson said progress on the next phase would largely be dictated by weather.
“It would be nice to get something finished before everything freezes up,” she said.
For more information on the Bigfork stormwater project, including BSAC meeting times and minutes, visit www.bigforksteering.org/bigfork-stormwater-advisory.html.