Growth battle brewing

COEUR d'ALENE - The battle over growth on the north side of Kootenai County isn't going away.

Mort Construction is seeking a conditional-use permit to built a regional wastewater treatment and reuse facility south of Brunner Road between Diagonal Road and Old Highway 95.

A public hearing on the request, which is expected to draw a large turnout in opposition from residents wanting to preserve the rural lifestyle in the Athol area, will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at North Idaho College's Schuler Performing Arts Center in Boswell Hall.

"We wanted to apply for the (permit) because it was the right thing to do for the environment and north Kootenai County long term rather than continuing to install septic systems," said Cliff Mort, president of Mort Construction, adding that the proponents have met with the Panhandle Health District and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on the proposal.

"The wastewater facility would be privately funded and ultimately paid for by those who would choose to hook up and use the system. This is a unique opportunity for the betterment of the future economic health of Kootenai County."

Mort said contrary to some rumors, no one would be forced to hook up to the system. If it's built, the North Kootenai Sewer and Water Association will take over and run the facility.

However, vocal opposition to the permit request is mounting. Growth and annexations have become a hot-button issue in north Kootenai County as some residents and developers desire the services despite limited infrastructure.

But others, including the Cedar Mountain Association, are organizing opposition to what is referred to as the Silver Hills Wastewater Treatment plant, because the group aims to preserve the rural lifestyle for northern Kootenai County.

In a column in Friday's Press, Lee Zimmer, a resident of northern Kootenai County wrote that "haphazard urban sprawl into Kootenai County's rural areas is not in the best interest of its citizens. Once again, we need to come together en masse to defend the scenic rural nature of northern Kootenai County from those who would destroy it for profit."

The permit request for the wastewater facility comes just a month after the Kootenai County board of commissioners denied a request by Mort Construction to reconsider changing the zoning of 34 acres near Athol from rural to restricted residential on the east side of Highway 95 about 2 miles north of Chilco Road. The board denied the zone-change request in May after hundreds of people turned out for hearings. Approval would have paved the way for 86 residential lots on quarter-acre and half-acre lots.

Mort said there's a pending appeal on the zone-change denial.

The zone change was a separate application than the pending one for the permit for the wastewater facility.

The wastewater facility will collect municipal wastewater, treat the effluent and land-apply the recycled water over 515 acres. Jim Kimball, of J-U-B Engineers and who is designing the facility, said the facility's capacity could serve as many as 2,500 residences along U.S. 95 from Chilco to south of Athol.

"Initially only 25 to 30 acres will be utilized and, depending on the rate of growth, the site may never be built out," Kimball said.

Kimball said septic tanks are less than 20 percent efficient in removing nitrogen, but the land application system has to be almost 100 percent efficient to meet state anti-degradation groundwater rules.

Drew Dittman of Lake City Engineering said the property is not over the Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, the region's drinking water source. The size of the facility has not been determined and would be subject to IDEQ approval.

Mort said in light of the recent denial of Mort's Pine Tree Ranch Second Addition subdivision, there are no new subdivisions being planned at this time even though his company has other land in the area that would benefit from the facility.

"The sewer treatment facility is proposed as a long-term infrastructure planning measure to provide service for existing uses that choose to connect and for future industrial, commercial and residential uses in northern Kootenai County," Mort said, adding that Ravenwood RV Park and commercial and industrial property around the Chilco mill and Silverwood Theme Park and the city of Athol are in need of a wastewater treatment system.

Mort calls a wastewater plant in the Athol area "long overdue."

"The state would not have built a new four-lane freeway and with two new interchanges (at Chilco and Silverwood Theme Park) if they didn't believe growth was occurring and would occur in this corridor," he said. "Bottom line is that, if there is going to be growth in north Kootenai County of any kind - whether it's residential, industrial or commercial - this reuse faulty needs to happen."