Soil tests say land application suitable

The 500 acres of prairie farmland that Post Falls wants to buy has suitable soils for irrigation with treated wastewater, according to preliminary soil sample results.

“Hopefully that will put people’s minds to rest,” Post Falls spokeswoman Kit Hoffer said Friday.

Post Falls will ask 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 can reduce the amount of effluent it dumps into the Spokane River.

Proponents say treated wastewater used as irrigation doesn’t harm the aquifer because the soil and plant roots work as a natural filtering system to remove nitrogen.

But 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 feared the effluent could drain straight into the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, not giving plant roots time to absorb nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people.

Baker wasn’t available for comment Friday, but the soil results didn’t ease neighbors’ fears of polluted water.

Connie Firkins, who lives near the property and helped form the group Concerned Citizens of the Prairie, expected the results to favor land application, especially because the hydrologist the city hired lives and works in Post Falls.

“It’s just 157 feet above our water,” Firkins said. “We just don’t like the idea.”

The group plans to buy advertisements and campaign door-to-door even though many of the opponents live in the county and can’t vote in the city election.

The final soil test report won’t be available until next week, but hydrologist John Riley met with city officials Friday to tell them that the soil looks “appropriate” for land application in most areas.

City Administrator Jim Hammond said there are a few rocky spots that aren’t currently being irrigated that the soil tests showed as “marginal,” meaning the city wouldn’t use those areas for land application.

He said most of the property has good soil, very similar to the type of dirt found where the Hayden Lake Recreational Sewer District uses treated effluent to grow bluegrass and poplar trees.

Hammond said he’s surprised the neighbors are so opposed to the city’s proposal to irrigate the land with the odorless, treated water. If the land were sold to developers, more than 1,500 homes could be built there.

“They are guaranteed not to have a bunch of houses across the street,” Hammond said. “Around the country where they do this it’s always a positive.”

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.

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.

Absentee voting began this week. City residents who want to vote absentee can do so at the Post Falls City Hall or the Kootenai County Election Office.

The city will have two informational meetings Thursday where residents can ask city officials questions about the land application plan and election. The meetings are from 3-5 p.m. and from 6-8 p.m. at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, 2002 W. Seltice Way. Participants will also get a tour of the plant. For more information, call 773-3511.