Illegal Dump Muddies Creek Water From Wal-Mart Site Makes A Mess Of Sand Creek

Crews building a giant Wal-Mart store here illegally dumped thousands of gallons of muddy water into Sand Creek this week, environmental officials said.

“They have quite a mess out there, and I’m really disappointed Wal-Mart has not been more responsive to the problem,” said June Berquist of the state Division of Environmental Quality.

Berquist received several complaints Monday when residents spotted workers pumping pools of muddy water off the 15-acre site into Sand Creek.

It’s the second time Wal-Mart has been caught discharging polluted water into the stream, which flows into Lake Pend Oreille.

“The problem is with the plans. The store was meant to be built in the dry summer months, not in the winter,” Berquist said. “Now they have all this water setting out there and they don’t know what to do with it.”

Wal-Mart is building a new 100,000-square-foot store off U.S. Highway 95. The site, four miles northeast of Sandpoint, flooded with rainwater and melting snow Monday.

Because a storm sewer system is not yet complete, the water pooled next to the highway and had to be pumped away before it flooded the road.

“I’ve had lots of complaints about this job since October when it started getting wet,” Berquist said. “The highway district is pretty upset, too, because all the water is eroding their right of way.”

Attempts to reach Wal-Mart officials were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Environmental officials are also trying to reach Wal-Mart representatives in Colorado to see why the problem hasn’t been fixed. Letters complaining about the illegal pumping were sent to Wal-Mart officials on Nov. 2 and Jan. 11.

“It’s not the on-site contractor’s problem,” Berquist said. “He got a bad plan to begin with and is trying to deal with a bad situation.”

Water-quality officials said they don’t plan to fine Wal-Mart for the violations. Instead, they want the company to hire an erosion-control specialist and fix existing problems before spring rains come.

In the meantime, Berquist said if it’s a choice between letting the highway flood or pumping water into Sand Creek, the creek will be the loser.

“It’s a difficult problem now. There’s not much else they can do with all that water.”

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