Residents seek specifics about wastewater plan

Post Falls needs to give people more specifics about its proposal to irrigate farmland on the Rathdrum Prairie with treated wastewater before asking voters to spend $9.5 million on land purchases, some residents say.

Post Falls is asking voters Aug. 3 to approve spending the cash to buy up to 1,000 acres of farmland during the next 10 years for land application. By irrigating crops with treated wastewater the city could reduce the amount of effluent it dumps into the Spokane River.

Treated wastewater used as irrigation doesn’t harm the aquifer because the soil works as a natural filtering system, proponents say.

But not everyone on the prairie is comfortable with the idea.

City officials met with about 30 neighbors Tuesday, many of whom are county residents and can’t vote in the city election, to answer their questions. Post Falls plans to have similar open houses before the election and officials are meeting with various service groups and the Chamber of Commerce.

Perhaps the largest concern is whether the 500 acres of bluegrass fields that the city wants to buy have the right type of soil to allow irrigation. Post Falls recently hired a hydrologist to take soil samples and expects to get the results next week.

The East Greenacres Irrigation District recently raised concerns that the farmland south of Hayden Avenue is too rocky for irrigation. The district has five domestic wells, some of which adjoin the Hayden Avenue property, and Manager Paul Baker fears that the effluent could drain straight into the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, not giving the plant roots time to absorb the nutrients such as phosphorus. He worried that could contaminate the district’s water wells and the aquifer, which is the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people.

Baker, whose water districts serves a portion of Post Falls and Kootenai County, was unavailable for comment but outlined the district’s concerns in a June 7 letter to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Baker pointed out that the soil survey for Kootenai County shows that the soils on the 500 acres the city wants to buy are the same type that aren’t adequate for land application, according to DEQ’s guidelines for the aquifer .

“Much of the land in that general area of the Rathdrum Prairie are not only unsuited for land application but indeed according to your guidelines, are to ‘be avoided,’ ” Baker wrote.

Post Falls hired local hydrologist John Riley to take soil samples and determine if the land is suitable for land application. Preliminary results received Tuesday show that the soil contains a lot of loam, not gravel, and is probably adequate for irrigation, Mayor Clay Larkin told the group.

“We want the answers as much as you do,” Larkin said. “We don’t want to do anything that is wrong.”

If the soil tests show that the land is too rocky for irrigation, Larkin said the city would look for other acreage. The August vote is only to give the city permission to spend $9.5 million but doesn’t dictate which property the city would buy.

Post Falls chose the 500 acres that runs along the south side of Hayden Avenue between Chase Road and just east of Idaho Road because it has produced bluegrass for four generations.

City Administrator Jim Hammond said the rocky soil the irrigation district is referring to usually doesn’t grow good crops because it doesn’t retain water.

John Tindall, a DEQ engineer, said that the irrigation district has a legitimate concern but agreed if the land has grown successful bluegrass crops it is probably suitable for irrigation.Hammond said the city is happy to research the soil because its ultimate goal is the same as the irrigation district’s—to protect the aquifer and put less effluent into the river while preserving green space on the prairie. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to reduce the amount of treated wastewater towns put into the river.

Burt Onstott lives about 350 feet from the property on Chase Road. He knows from experience that it’s difficult to irrigate the gravelly land.

“I can turn the irrigation system on for 24-7 and there’s not hardly a puddle, it goes straight down,” Onstott said.

He’s also worried about the wind blowing the treated wastewater onto his property.

“I don’t really want someone’s used sewer water blowing over my house,” he said.

Post Falls Public Works Director Terry Werner reiterated that the water is treated and is safe for humans and animals. Three clear bottle of water sat on the table in front of him, as proof there’s no solids in the water. He also emphasized that there’s no odor.

“It’s a misunderstood resource,” he said, adding that more than 1,900 communities, including the University of Idaho and Washington State University, use treated wastewater to irrigate parks, golf courses and playing fields.

Hammond said he can’t understand why people are missing the point that irrigating with treated wastewater is actually good for the aquifer.

Currently, farmers can put as much water, fertilizer and herbicides as they want on their fields because there is no regulation. Hammond said all those things can seep into the aquifer,.

If the city were to use the water for irrigation, it would be heavily regulated by DEQ. The city would have to monitor the amount of effluent put on the land so it never goes deeper then the plant roots. That prevents nutrients from seeping into the aquifer

Unlike the soil, the Spokane River can’t absorb many of the nutrients that remain in treated wastewater. And that’s why the EPA is limiting the amount of effluent that can go into the river.

“It would be silly for us to do anything that would harm the aquifer,” Hammond said. “If we found this was very gravely soil we wouldn’t want to buy it anyway.”

Larkin also said that keeping the land green would prevent developers from building up to 1,500 homes there.

If city voters approve the land purchase, residents’ sewer rates wouldn’t increase. Post Falls residents are currently paying off three bonds approved in the late 1980s and early 1990s to build and improve the current wastewater plant. The largest of those payments is set to expire next year. The city wants to extend that debt and keep using the additional sewer rate money to buy the property for land application.

If voters approve the purchase it could take up to five years before land application begins.