Links To Absorb Sewage Uproar Plan To Spray Treated Waste On Golf Course Dilutes Aquifer Worry

A Twin Lakes Village developer is expected to withdraw plans for a monumental sewage drain field which has drawn criticism from both sides of the state line.

State environmental watchdogs have given developer Charlie Potts conceptual approval to spray-irrigate treated waste onto the Twin Lakes Golf Course for six months of the year instead.

That plan, they said Monday, poses much less of a threat to the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, the region’s sole drinking-water source.

That comes as a relief to Scarcello Road residents, who have spent months battling Potts’ original plan.

“I think it’s wonderful,” said Suzanne Browning. “I think he should have done it a long time ago.”

Potts did not return several telephone calls to his home or office Monday.

Because it has been advertised, Kootenai County officials still will hold a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lakes Junior Academy to discuss the original proposal.

It called for dumping waste from up to 400 homes on a 10-acre site outside Twin Lakes.

The site was chosen to meet a Panhandle Health District requirement that sewage from future development be located away from the aquifer.

But while the site was located a quarter-mile from the aquifer, environmental experts said it probably still drained into the water supply.

“Realistically, we probably would have found it (the sewage drainfield) re-charging the aquifer,” said Gary Gaffney, a water quality engineer for the Division of Environmental Quality.

Still, DEQ and Panhandle Health approved the proposal because Potts, as requested, had chosen a site not above the aquifer. All that remained was a conditional use permit from the county.

Last month, an independent hearing examiner recommended county commissioners veto the idea because there was no assurance wastewater wouldn’t contaminate the aquifer. Last week, even the Spokane County Planning Commission urged Kootenai County commissioners to vote against it.

Meanwhile, Gaffney said, Potts had been discussing an alternative with DEQ and appears ready to pursue it.

That plan calls for treating waste from up to 500 Twin Lakes homes. Half the year, the waste would be disposed of through a drainfield; the other half, it would be sprayed onto the golf course, an increasingly common practice.

“The city of Hayden is experimenting with it,” Gaffney said. “The University of Idaho does it.”

That would not eliminate the problem. The subdivision’s existing drainfield would remain at Twin Lakes, above the aquifer.

But the new plan would require an increase in treatment - meaning more pollutants would be removed from the wastewater - and effectively cut in half the amount of wastewater that’s now pumped to the drainfield.

And it would eliminate the need for the Scarcello Road site.

That sounds fine to Browning, who still plans to attend Wednesday’s meeting. “I have my speech all ready,” she said. “It’s our sole drinking water. It’s too precious. I don’t want to take chances.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Meeting A public hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lakes Junior Academy to discuss the original proposal.