The Flathead County Commissioners at their Oct. 21 meeting approved the purchase of a 36.9-acre property that could serve as a new regional septage facility in the county. The purchase agreement for the property, located at 305 Wiley Dike Road in the lower valley, is for $1.5 million with a closing date of the sale in January. The sale price is nearly three times what the commissioners initially approved of earlier in October.
“In my opinion, this is one of the most important projects in the county that could go forward,” Flathead County Administrator Pete Melnick said. “This is a place that would be able to handle all of the county’s septic waste that gets generated.”
Due to the rapid growth in the county over the last decade, septic waste generated by Flathead residents has increased while available land suitable for the disposal of waste has dwindled.
“The cities take care of some waste, but most is shipped through companies to other parts of the region,” Melnick said. “If you heard, we had a porta potty crisis this summer with companies out of places to dispose of their waste.”
Each of the county’s three municipalities have their own septage plants to handle city-generated waste, but they have strict limitations on handling additional waste.
Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman said the city’s wastewater treatment plant only started accepting portable toilet waste from local venders over the summer after hearing that companies were unable to find anywhere to take their waste. Companies that contract with the city are only able to take waste produced within city limits to the plant.
Whitefish recently completed an upgrade to their treatment facility, transitioning from a series of aerated lagoons to a treatment facility, with a 20-year planning horizon. The redesign was completed with a plan to expand the facility in two decades.
A county-operated regional waste facility would be able to accept waste from anywhere in the county, lowering the demand on municipal plants.
“A facility like this is long overdue,” Workman said. “Because the site will also be able to accept wastewater bio solids from the communities, the landfill will also see less dumping. I think it’s going to be a fantastic addition to the county.”
Currently, each city hauls biosolid waste to the landfill. Officials with the city of Columbia Falls estimate they disposed nearly 1,034 tons of waste to the county landfill last year.
Melnick said the multi-million-dollar plan has been in the works for the better part of a decade, and the recent America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant funding, which was specifically allocated to water and sewer projects, has made progress on the new facility possible.
The county received $2 million in ARPA money from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) that is being used for the site survey and analysis, as well as the facility design. In addition, the county received $10 million in ARPA funding that could provide the base funding for construction.
In October 2021, the Flathead City-County Board of Health published a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for engineer services for the septage treatment and biosolids composting facility. The RFQ details how the plant will operate, including that septage will be received, solid waste will be separated and the septage will be dewatered. Biosolids from the dewatering process will be composted and the remaining water treated to an acceptable level to be disposed on-site by either a surface or subsurface application or delivered to a municipal wastewater plant for treatment and final disposal.
Also at their Oct. 21 meeting, the commissioners approved a request for an increased ARPA Water and Sewer Infrastructure Grant to add to the $2 million the county has already been awarded. The requested increase was for $304,357, which will be moved into the county’s septage project.