Sewer lines of contention

Sacheen Lake is a popular fishing and vacation spot in the summer. But longtime resident Perry Pearman says its beauty shines brightest in the quiet winter months.    “It ices over, that flash ice,” he said.    When that happens, Pearman straps on skates and shines a flashlight in the dark, chasing aquatic creatures beneath the surface.

When the temperatures warm at the 314-acre lake, just off U.S. Highway 2 in southern Pend Oreille County, he helps survey for milfoil, an invasive plant that inhibits boating and saps resources for other native flora in the lake.

Pearman said he’s seeing more of that plant life in the lake, one of the observations that’s behind a push to install sewers around Sacheen. But the costly process and concern from neighbors about transparency has sometimes divided the quiet, lakeside community. It’s an issue that’s common to the dozens of lakes that surround Spokane, pitting conservationists against homeowners, and outdoor enthusiasts against real estate planners. The struggle on Sacheen Lake also shows just how expensive delaying the process can be.

Some residents on the lake say they were told they would have to pay about $17,000 for the sewer service, but because of issues during the digging of gaping sewer lagoons into the rocky hills east of the lake, expect to pay much more.

Rich Prange is one of several homeowners on Sacheen who said they spent thousands of dollars to install their own septic systems, and that spreading the cost among all residents for an expensive sewer system is unfair. He also points to a lack of hard facts indicating the system is needed.

“I have duck houses up on the front of my house. I’m an environmentalist,” Prange said, referring to wooden structures built to attract migrating fowl. “I just don’t like spending money on something that’s not needed.”

A tale of two lakes

Proponents of sewer plans on Sacheen Lake point to a 1991 study by researchers at Eastern Washington University, who concluded the water had a high rate of algae blooms, a low amount of dissolved oxygen and evidence of phosphorus. All those problems could be attributed to sewage leaking into the lake, prompting the researchers to recommend a sewer system.

The study came more than two decades after voters on the lake created a taxing district that could collect fees to pay for a sewer system. Nearby Diamond Lake sought sewer at the same time and ultimately received grant dollars, more plentiful then than now, to complete their project.

“We had the grant money, and it was all ready to come to Sacheen Lake,” Pearman said. But opposition from “some really stodgy people here” stopped it, he said.

In contrast, Diamond Lake has a functioning sewer system paid for with “pennies on the dollar,” Pearman said.

Diamond, about twice the size of Sacheen and just a few miles to the southeast along Highway 2, “didn’t have any opposition at all, in fact it was quite the opposite,” said Ray King, one of the lake’s water and sewer commissioners. The bill facing Sacheen Lake property owners to hook up to a system is expected to be well above $23,000, according to officials; property owners on Diamond Lake paid about $1,500 in the 1970s, King said. That’s about $7,000 adjusted for inflation. Some of the lower cost can be attributed to former U.S. Rep. Tom Foley securing millions of dollars in federal funding for the sewer construction in the 1980s.

Back at Sacheen Lake, opponents of the sewer say water-quality data showing the need for a system is outdated. Phosphorus and nitrogen readings taken between 2002 and 2007, when Pearman and others used herbicides and manual weed-pulling to curb the milfoil, produced results well within normal ranges for the most part, according to a Department of Ecology study. But there were unexplained spikes in the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007, prompting researchers to suggest a more thorough study of water quality.

Mike and Deb Kanyer, area residents who oppose the sewer system, said the numbers being cited to push for sewer are contained in “a 30-year-old study developed by college undergraduates as a term project.”

Deb Kanyer said she’d support the project if the sewer district could provide more recent data to show the system is necessary.

“That’s kind of a common thread of this whole sewer board, is they don’t give information,” she said.

Brook Beeler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Ecology, said the agency does not have a long-term monitoring program in place at Sacheen.

Pearman referred to the lake as a “granite bowl,” collecting all the waste that flows in from yard treatments, pine trees and faulty septic systems. In many homes, the septic system is nothing more than a 55-gallon drum buried in the ground, with varying degrees of watertight piping, he said. One is just a pit enclosed by concrete blocks, with no mortar.

Jeff Storms, a former sewer commissioner who installed his own septic system years ago, said he knows there are some residents who need the sewer because of the terrain. But septic systems aren’t necessarily bad, he said.

“It’s a big misconception,” Storms said of the argument that sewers always perform better than septic. “Look at all the pollution they put in the Spokane River from sewers. Septic has been around forever.”

Sacheen’s rocky terrain may also be to blame for the costs residents say are becoming prohibitive.

Some surprising costs

When contractors began digging lagoon ditches last year in the rocky hills above Sacheen Lake, they discovered something unexpected. Groundwater swelled immediately, swamping the lagoons and causing delays and design changes that will put residents – and taxpayers – on the hook for an additional $2 million in costs. Most of the money for the repairs will come from grant dollars provided by the Ecology Department.

Storms served on the sewer board when the lagoon site was selected. He said he hunted the area frequently and several tests were done before digging began indicating it would be an ideal location.

The amount of groundwater prompted the Ecology Department to recommend changes to the design. Pearman said the upfront construction costs would be worth it, as fixing the problem later would cost the sewer district much, much more. He also said the district will seek some help from the state for the project.

“We’re going to go back to the state legislators and tell them we’re doing the right thing for the lake,” he said.

Deb Kanyer and others say the potential costs of the program have been given a low profile. Multiple alterations of the contract have been approved by the sewer board.

At its meeting in April, the board approved changes totaling a little more than $200,000. After the vote, district Commissioner Gary Garrett summed up the board’s opinion to project engineer Kevin Koesel.

“We don’t want any more of these,” Garrett said.

The district also hasn’t offered a firm estimate of what monthly costs to homeowners will be, Kanyer said. Pearman gave a figure around $150, but that hasn’t been published anywhere and work hasn’t been completed.

Pearman added that the sewer district planned to harvest trees in the forested area around the lagoons that will be irrigated with treated wastewater. Timber sales will go toward paying off the 20-year loan from the Department of Ecology starting in about 15 years, he said.

“I understand completely,” Pearman said of the concerns about costs. “It’s not like I don’t pay the same costs that they do.”

Kanyer said her concerns about how the district was spending its money began when she moved to the lake and paid to put in a new septic system. A neighbor informed her of plans to sewer the area, and Kanyer went to a meeting with her husband hoping to broker a cost-saving deal that would benefit both her and the district.

Kanyer said contractors there told her they’d have to destroy the system she’d just spent $15,000 to install, in order to hook the home up to sewer.

“I was just blown away by that,” she said.

In spite of the costs, many residents say the sewer is a long time coming, and is necessary to preserve the lake community.

Don Hill moved back to Sacheen Lake when he retired and eventually was named president of the homeowners association.

“It was a great place to grow up,” Hill said of the lake. “The water was so much clearer.”

Diane Wear, a former Pend Oreille County Commissioner who now lives on the same lake where her parents bought property in 1970, called the move to sewer the area a “no-brainer.”

“They have an outhouse that’s balanced on three rocks,” she said, referring to her parents. “Where is that sewage going? Gosh, it’s ending up in the lake.”

Dividing lines

The popular vacation spot has no published account of how many residents live there year-round and how many residents only spend their summers and weekends on beachfront property along a lake renowned for fishing. Pearman guesses about 1 in 5 homes on the lake are occupied year-round.

That number could rise once the sewer comes in, some residents believe. King, the Diamond Lake sewer and water commissioner, said after that lake added a sewer system, property owners began adding other amenities.

“Many of the cabins became homes,” he said.

At Sacheen, proponents of the sewer system say development will be kept in check by the system’s size, though the district is pushing for the addition of more homes onto the sewer line to defray costs for lakeside residents.

“It isn’t infinite in its capacity,” said Hill, the president of the homeowners association, referring to the sewer system. “It will automatically limit itself. You just can’t have enormous development.”

But the issue still is creating friction. At the sewer board hearing in April, residents of a nearby subdivision said they felt intimidated by their neighbors for seeking connections to the sewer line. Pearman said if 25 of the 40 lots in the subdivision decided to hook up, it would become financially feasible to extend the line and bill homeowners there to ease the stress on all residents’ wallets.

Prange, the sewer system opponent, said the dispute over sewer has led to divisiveness in a community that was once close-knit.

“You used to smile and wave at people on the road,” he said. “Now you have people looking at you like, ‘Is that the guy at the meeting against sewer?’ ”