North Fork Permit Plan Tabled Residents At Hearing Tee Off On Fees For Sewage Controls

By a show of hands, it seemed every person crowded into a courtroom and overflowing into the hallway on Wednesday evening was opposed to a proposed ordinance designed to protect the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

Speaker after speaker at a Shoshone County planning commission hearing blasted the proposal as discriminatory and off-target. They were especially incensed at the idea of having to buy a permit costing $200 or more if they have a recreational vehicle with self-contained sewage tank, a vault-type holding tank or a portable privy on their private land.

The planning commissioners listened and tabled the ordinance.

Despite the outcry over the ordinance, commission Chairman Chris Pfahl told the audience to expect some kind of new rules to keep watch over the disposal of blackwater and graywater -that is, water from toilets and sinks - on property with no approved septic system.

“This is a consistent issue; it isn’t going away. The county is going to have to deal with this.”

During the hearing, the crowd ignored Pfahl’s request that people not applaud, and many did not heed his request to suggest better ways to deal with the potential health threat of pollution from human waste.

“I see no problems, so I offer no solutions,” said Don Mathewson of Post Falls, who has vacation property at Castle Park recreational subdivision. “I would do nothing to hurt my land. I will not pay to camp on my own property. I will sell it first.”

No one testified in favor of the plan, although one woman from the audience told Pfahl that she was in favor of it “because something needs to be done.”

Another woman, Silver Valley resident Kathy Zanetti, asked the commission to spend at least a full year drafting a new ordinance and gathering comment on the issue, to allow the many part-time riverside residents - many of whom live out of the county - to comment. She also echoed many others in insisting that it is not private landowners but transient river visitors such as campers and floaters who are the source of pollution.

“There is not any person up there who is not a good steward of their land,” Zanetti said.

Al Martin of Kingston pointed a finger at the “Gypsy camps” of recreationists that spring up on private forest land up Prichard Creek and other tributary streams. If any fee is charged to private landowners, he said, it should be limited to a one-time $50 or $60 permit. He decried the unannounced inspections allowed for by the draft ordinance, calling them “sneak attacks in the middle of the night with flashlights.”

Bert James, owner of Albert’s Place bar and campground, also blamed people who float the river every summer as being “80 percent” of the source of pollution. He suggested requiring them to buy a sticker for their cars that would allow them to park along the river. The money would be used to enforce sanitation rules.

Glen Nickerson, whose family uses a rented portable toilet at its property, voiced suspicion that the ordinance was designed just to raise permit money. He said he didn’t think recreational sanitation issues should have to meet the same requirements as homes. The ordinance, he said, “is really kind of worthless.”

County planning administrator Ken Hicks said the ordinance arose from a long list of environmental concerns presented to county commissioners last year by members of the North Fork Task Force. Task force member Claudia Howe pointed out that permit fees were just one potential source of income mentioned by the group, and that its members were not consulted when the ordinance was drafted.

“We wanted Dumpsters, Port-a-Potties, things that would clean up the river,” she said.