A Real Stinker Dump Near Aquifer Is Deemed Safe, But Also Violates Federal Regulations

It looks like any other big mud puddle: a large, rut-filled pond brimming with dirty liquid.

Then a warm spring breeze blows across the water, leaving a rancid stench that reminds visitors this is no ordinary pond.

This is the Round Mountain dump, located 15 miles north of Coeur d’Alene off Ramsey Road. The 80-acre disposal site sits just outside the Rathdrum aquifer, the area’s main source of drinking water.

Up to a million gallons a year of the county’s most premium swill - septic tank sludge and restaurant grease - is unloaded here.

Even city sewage plants and Kootenai County’s landfill won’t accept such nasty waste. Sometimes its sheer volume violates federal regulations, health specialists say.

Yet last month county commissioners renewed a permit to operate the dump. The reason: There’s no other place to put the waste.

In coming months, city, state and county health experts will look for an alternative to the Round Mountain site. It may be years before they find one.

“We just don’t have a better solution at this time,” said County Commissioner Bob Macdonald.

Sewage that builds up in septic tanks is too concentrated to be dumped in a wastewater treatment plant.

“When that stuff sits in the tank it’s sometimes 20 times stronger than normal sewage,” said Sid Fredrickson, superintendent of Coeur d’Alene’s plant. “It would shock our system.”

Federal law prohibits the dumping of restaurant grease at the sewer plant. Neither septic sludge nor grease can be taken to the county landfill because the water content exceeds 20 percent.

As a result, septic tanks have been dumped on Round Mountain for 15 years. The gunk is then spread over 20 acres of twigs and grass, where it’s absorbed into the ground.

That may seem strange to homeowners who spend thousands of dollars putting in septic tanks, only to have them pumped out onto the earth a few blocks away.

It’s not ideal, experts said, but it’s not unsafe. “Environmentally, it’s one of the best ways to get rid of this stuff,” said Ken Babin of Panhandle Health District.

The nutrients are used up by plants growing at the site, so they don’t infiltrate the soil, he said.

Because the site is adjacent to the aquifer and not directly over it, drinking water is not harmed.

“It’s basically a fertilizer,” said Gary Adams, who bought the site when he purchased Roto-Rooter in 1986.

The Environmental Protection Agency used to allow dumping of 60,000 gallons of such waste per acre per year, Babin said.

In 1993 that was cut in half. Waste at the dump sometimes tops 40,000 gallons.

“It’s a federal regulation we’re not enforcing,” Babin said.

“We just can’t.”

A regional committee studying waste is considering a treatment center that would remove water from the waste so it can be taken to the Fighting Creek landfill, said Roger Tinkey, with the Division of Environmental Quality.

Another option is to build another dump site near the landfill, which is located 12 miles south of Coeur d’Alene and away from the aquifer.