Development Fought Over Water Quality Sewage System Approved Despite Likely Impact To Well

A sewage treatment plant for a 92-home subdivision above Cougar Gulch could spill bacteria into a neighboring couple’s drinking water, experts say.

State water experts approved the system in October, saying it’s unlikely sewage will reach unhealthy levels in the well owned by neighbors Graydon and Virginia Johnson.

“State law allows ground water to be impacted some,” said Jim McInnis, a water quality engineer for the Division of Environmental Quality. But he said the damage would likely be unnoticeable.

The skeptical Johnsons say it’s another reason to be uneasy about the development overlooking their 160-acre homestead.

“We have to worry about poop in our water,” said an angry Virginia Johnson, who has battled the development for three years.

Despite the DEQ findings, which were made public earlier this month, county commissioners last week gave the project a preliminary OK and paved the way for a final set of hearings in December.

If they rule in developer Mike McCormack’s favor, he could begin selling lots in the 118-acre subdivision by year’s end.

An attorney for McCormack says neighbors are grasping at straws to halt the development among the rolling hills three miles south of Coeur d’Alene.

“At some point you have to say ‘Who do you trust?”’ said attorney Dana Wetzel, representing McCormack. “DEQ is an unbiased state agency. It has nothing to gain or lose by permitting this system.”

But a legal war will continue.

The Johnsons’ attorney, Marc McGregor, claims county commissioners ignored a judge’s ruling with last week’s decision. They will argue an appeal in January.

First District Judge Craig Kosonen in June said county commissioners improperly approved the project in 1994 because they lacked proof the sewage system would work.

“He sent it back to do it right and they did the same thing again,” McGregor said.

Commissioners based their decision on DEQ’s permit. But internal agency memos suggest there may be unanswered questions:

McCormack’s own engineers estimated the proposed sewage system - where waste is routed to two 400,000-gallon lagoons and then drained into ponds that leach into the ground - could fail in 11 to 17 years.

Residents could smell the sewage because their homes will be built close to the ponds.

The Johnsons’ spring could see elevated levels of nitrates and phosphorous.

The DEQ’s McInnis said the life expectancy of the treatment system was conservative and based on full development, which would not occur for several years. Homeowners would be responsible for taking care of odor problems, he said.

By the time bacteria seeps into ground water and into the Johnsons’ well, McInnis said, it will be safe for drinking.

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