DEQ: Holland Lake sewer could be contaminating area groundwater

Montana's environment agency said wastewater from Holland Lake Lodge could be leaking above state-approved levels after nonprofit Save Holland Lake made an official complaint that the site could be contaminating groundwater.

The Department of Environmental Quality then asked the Forest Service in an August letter to complete an analysis of the site by Sept. 17. Officials from the Forest Service requested a two-month extension of the study, a letter from the Forest Service said.

DEQ said in its August letter that after looking at nearby precipitation and evaporation data, waste volume and spray irrigation records, DEQ's Engineering Bureau determined that the lagoons may be leaking in excess and study is needed to get an accurate estimate of leakage.

Any problems with the sewage lagoon must be fixed before any new expansions to the lagoons are approved, the letter said. If the lagoon is leaking into Holland Lake above state-allowed levels, then the Forest Service could be in violation of state law.

"A lagoon leaking in excess of the allowed rate, or land application at greater than agronomic rates, could be considered a discharge to state waters without a permit," DEQ said in its letter to the USFS.

In a response letter from Sept. 1, Flathead National Forest Deputy Supervisor Tami MacKenzie said it will comply with recommendations made by DEQ engineers.

This includes replacing gauges for both lagoons, removing cattails and weeds from the site, removing animal burrows from the site, performing a leakage test, record irrigation pump times and verify the Forest service is not oversaturating the ground with treated sewage.

In another letter on Sept. 6, MacKenzie said the lodge must close for the year before an accurate test can be made.

"Cell 1 cannot be isolated from the system so the test cannot be completed until the system is no longer in use," MacKenzie said. "We anticipate completing the test before Nov. 15, 2023."

She added that there are no current plans to expand the lagoon.

Lagoons are often used to treat wastewater across the country. They are cheap to operate and naturally break down harmful chemicals from human waste.

Missoula County is the agency that oversees approving and monitoring the lagoon. The permit for the site was last approved in 2004.

The Lodge gets its water from a well near Holland Lake and pumps its wastewater from the lodge to two sewage lagoons roughly 1,000 feet to the northwest. The sewage lagoons treat the wastewater with natural chemicals and then spray irrigates the treated water.

Save Holland Lake, the nonprofit that made the complaint, wrote in a release that Missoula County has noted a decrease in spray irrigation at the site since 2003. They added that the lagoons failed three of four tests for total suspended solids and biological oxygen demand, but the permit was still issued.

After filing their own public records request for flow levels from the campground and lodge to the lagoon, they said things didn't seem right.

"It became apparent that the numbers did not add up," the release said. "More wastewater was being pumped into the plant than was being irrigated after treatment."

Holland Lake Lodge is currently reapplying for its special use permit to change primary ownership to a company under POWDR, a Utah-based resort company. That process, which started in February, is still underway.

The lodge has been near the shores of Holland Lake since 1925, and recently tried to submit a new plan to triple the footprint of the site with a new lodge and more rentable cabins.