Your Turn: Water Quality District backs interim zoning

Recent letters, ads, and opinion pieces in the newspaper continue an assault on the Lewis and Clark County Commissioners for long-overdue measures taken to protect ground water and private property rights.

During Planning Board and County Commission hearings, members of the Board of the Lewis and Clark County Water Quality Protection District testified in favor of implementing interim zoning regulations as a means of slowing continued degradation of water resources in our area. Further, the board believes property owners have a fundamental right to clean well water, untainted by sewage or other contaminants.

Some members of the development community invoke the specter of extraordinary costs that could be incurred by homeowners to comply with interim or new regulations. They fail to mention the potentially even greater expense incurred by a homeowner to deal with water contaminated by septic waste. A new, relocated or deeper well could be very expensive, and may not provide long-term relief anyway given the inter-connected aquifers in much of our district. In-home water treatment systems to remove contaminants are also expensive, and require periodic maintenance and frequent testing. And the loss in property value associated with septic contamination could be tremendous. Those are some costs that would be borne by homeowner with contaminated water. Of course, if your neighbor’s septic system is the source of contamination you can ask her to pay for water treatment and compensate for loss of your property value. Good luck with that.

A properly sited, engineered, installed and maintained system should prevent ground water contamination. Some areas of the Helena Valley are suitable for individual septic systems, with the right kinds and quantities of soils, deep ground water, and suitable terrain. Other areas are too close to surface water or have very shallow ground water, steep slopes, and little or no soil cover. The variability of conditions within the valley argues against uniform minimum lot sizes. Five-acre lots may be unnecessarily large in some areas, but much too small to be protective in others. The board generally agrees with this position. That is a primary reason why the district is undertaking an aquifer vulnerability study to help map areas more susceptible or less susceptible to ground water contamination. Land use planning based on this kind of information will give prospective homeowners and others involved in development transactions predictability about building requirements.

Some people seem to think there has been too much emphasis on small amounts of pharmaceutical compounds in ground water. These compounds can be harmful; scientists have found neurological problems and reproductive abnormalities in aquatic species from exposures to some types of pharmaceuticals. But we would point out that the presence of pharmaceuticals (or nitrates) in well water is only a sign of bigger problems. If you live in the Valley and these pollutants are in your drinking water there is a pretty good chance they are coming from septic waste. Septic effluent also contains any number of other chemicals, bacteria and possibly even viruses that you don’t want in your water. While a standard level I septic system may remove up to half of the nitrates from waste, it is much less efficient at treating and removing other potential health hazards from the environment. But we usually only hear about the nitrates and, rarely, pharmaceuticals because drinking water isn’t normally tested for all of the possible pollutants that could be present.

How do we deal with these emerging problems that have clearly been exacerbated by rapid growth? The district needs to be more involved in land use planning and decisions affecting water quality. The district will be working with government agencies at all levels to identify and implement better waste management practices, including reductions in effluent loading to our water resources and methods to reuse wastewaters. The district will expand efforts to educate residents, children, and special interest groups about water quality protection. For example, creation of a septic maintenance district would lessen the potential for septic system failures and even save some homeowners money. Why? Because the cost to install a replacement system is usually much more than the routine expense incurred to pump a tank every three to five years.

If ground water contamination ever does become widespread — and the commissioners were right to use the term “exponential” when speaking to increasing contamination in the Valley — the cost to taxpayers could be tremendous. Preventing pollution is more effective, easier, and less costly in the long run than trying to clean up after the damage is done. In the immediate future, the Interim Zoning Regulations are a conservative measure to preserve drinking water quality and help to protect our families and children from exposure to potentially harmful contaminants. In the long run, zoning regulations based on sound science and good land use planning will save money, reduce degradation of our ground and surface water systems, and protect the rights of property owners to clean water.

KEN WALLACE is a member of the board of directors of the Lewis and Clark County Water Quality Protection District.