Island Sewage Lagoon Is Topic Of Hearing

Bonner County planners will hold a public hearing tonight on a controversial proposal to build a sewage lagoon on Derr Island.

Jim White, a Clark Fork contractor, started construction last year on the lagoon at the mouth of the Clark Fork River.

The county stopped the project after residents complained about potential pollution problems and discovered White did not have a conditional use permit to build the sewage treatment system.

White did have approval from the Division of Environmental Quality. But the handful of island residents, including humor novelist Pat McManus, still opposed the project. They said regulations allow the lagoon to seep 500 gallons of effluent a day and that will turn the island into a cesspool and pollute the river.

The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Coalition, an environmental watchdog group, has also opposed the project.

The public hearing is slated for 7 p.m. at the Bonner County Courthouse. , DataTimes