Lakeside Sewer District Pauses Annexations as Capacity Nears
With room for just 39 more units, the district is turning away new annexations until its expansion project comes online in 2028
By Zoë Buhrmaster
Lakeside County Water and Sewer District approved a temporary moratorium Tuesday on new properties seeking annexation into the wastewater treatment district. District board members said the remaining capacity at its facility will be reserved primarily for properties already within the district.
“Our first responsibility is to protect our commitments to the customers and property owners already within the district,” General Manager Rodney Olson said. “This ordinance helps preserve the capacity needed to serve them while we complete the next phase of our wastewater treatment facility improvements.”
The district currently has capacity for 39 more equivalent dwelling units. So far this year, the district has taken on service for 10 units, and it took on 18 in 2025, along with units for the Discovery Land Company’s Territory 1889 development. The purpose of the temporary moratorium, Olson said, is to prioritize servicing properties already within district boundaries until the new wastewater treatment facility is ready, which is expected in 2028.
Officials began examining ways to increase capacity at the wastewater facility in the early 2000s. After realizing that adding another storage pond would be costly because of necessary ground reinforcements and would provide limited capacity relief, officials explored other treatment methods. The district eventually undertook a two-phase expansion project, including a septage receiving facility for Flathead County.
The district is currently on phase two, which includes construction of the new wastewater treatment plant. The plant will use sequencing batch reactor technology (SBR) to treat wastewater before discharging it into groundwater via rapid infiltration basins. Phase two also includes the sludge-handling facilities and interconnected piping.
Environmental watchdog groups have criticized the expansion project for its location just over a mile north of Flathead Lake and for the proposed treatment method. Citizens for a Better Flathead and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes brought a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Environmental Quality over its approval of a groundwater discharge permit for the district, though a district court ruled in favor of the state in August.
Until the new wastewater facility comes online, district board members will have the discretion to annex properties on a case-by-case basis once the needs of properties within the existing district have been met.
Examples could include a lake house just outside the district that wants to come off septic, Olson said, or another emergency warranting inclusion into the sewer system.