The recent op-ed by the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) is a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about protecting Flathead Lake. They correctly point out that the proposed wastewater treatment technology, which the Lakeside County Water and Sewer District (LCWSD) has chosen, is not adequate to protect Flathead Lake’s water quality.
However, FLBS’s op-ed seems to operate from the assumption that the only place possible for the expansion of sewage facilities in the Flathead is at the LCWSD sewage treatment facility, currently located one mile north of Flathead Lake. But it is not.
On Sept. 2 Citizens for a Better Flathead and the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in support of our earlier suit challenging the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) issuance of a new pollutant groundwater discharge permit for LCWSD. This legal action asks the judge in this case to grant a temporary halt to the project, and a hearing on this request is scheduled for Oct. 14, 2025, in Flathead County District Court. If granted, this Preliminary Injunction will provide a vital pause, and a chance to determine if the contested permit will cause irreparable harm to Flathead Lake before tens of millions of dollars are invested in construction at this location.
The cost of the LCWSD expansion in 2023 was pegged at $29 million. As of June of 2025, the costs have exploded to $58 million. Requests for a release of a comprehensive budget for this project that not only shows rising expenses, but where the income will come from to cover construction, operation, maintenance, and replacement of 40-year-old existing infrastructure, are still being withheld from the public by LCWSD.
Scientific facts strongly demonstrate that the proposed site is ecologically indefensible. Now is the time to leverage this new legal action to pause and find a better location for expanded sewage and septage treatment, in the Flathead. The existing Lakeside County Water and Sewer District facility should be capped at its current capacity, and federal and state funds for expansion should be redirected to a durable, science-based solution in a more appropriate location.
Citizens for a Better Flathead respectfully disagrees with a few other assumptions in the FLBS op-ed. At perhaps the risk of taking out of context the FLBS’s op-ed statement that “expanded capacity at Lakeside is certainly needed” we want to make clear we don’t agree. It is our position that Flathead County, not Lakeside, should provide the leadership needed to find a better location to address the growing problems with the lack of treatment capacity for septic waste in the county. New facilities could and should be located far away from the shallow and fragile aquifer near Flathead Lake.
With over 40 years of research on these sensitive and unique aquifers in the Flathead, and as a Professor Emeritus at the University of Montana, where he taught stream ecology for over 35
years, Dr. Ric Hauer’s report makes it clear that the proposed site, with its shallow, unconfined aquifer, is the worst possible place to discharge a massive new load of wastewater. The report confirms that nutrients will reach Flathead Lake and Ashley Creek far more quickly than the LCWSD reports claim. Rather than serving as a natural filter, this hydrogeological environment acts as a direct conduit, funneling pollution into an already sensitive ecosystem. The problem isn’t just about how well the water is treated, but where it is put back into the environment.
The op-ed’s suggestion that LCWSD should choose a more modern technology “if possible within financial and operational limits” is an unacceptable position. Flathead Lake is a priceless resource; its value to the economy, culture, and ecosystem is incalculable. To suggest that its protection is subject to financial limits is a grave miscalculation. The cost of a degraded lake – from lost tourism to a collapsed fishery – would far outweigh the expense of finding and developing a proper treatment and disposal site. This is not a matter of “if we can afford to,” but a matter of what we must do to protect our most valuable asset.
The op-ed’s argument that a much higher level of tertiary treatment is essential has merit if this location remains the site for this expansion, but additional treatment can not adequately address or overcome the science and facts that show this site is perhaps the worst possible location in the county for the proposed massive expansion of a treatment site for septage and sewer waste. Indeed, the county and LCWSD’s choice of this site is short-sighted and fails to take into account the realities of the existing legal and scientific context within which the viability of this proposed location must be examined. Both Flathead Lake and Ashley Creek are already designated as “impaired” under the 2014 Stillwater Management Plan, which mandates a reduction in nutrient loads, not the addition of a massive new source. The Hauer report and other studies emphasize that even with tertiary treatment, the sheer volume of effluent from a 200,000-gallon-per-day facility will overwhelm the sensitive aquifer and contribute to further impairment.
What is needed now is a collective community voice calling for a pause in further spending on a flawed plan at this location. Time is needed to allow the court to evaluate significant evidence asserting that DEQ, in approving this greatly expanded discharge of septic and sewage waste at this site, relied on flawed assumptions, incomplete science, and plain errors. Finally, it is time for community leaders to work collaboratively to find a better location for growing septage and sewage needs in the county while insisting on solutions that truly safeguards the lake and the Flathead’s water quality for generations to come.
Mayre Flowers is the Executive Director of Citizens for a Better Flathead.