CONDON — In March, the Flathead National Forest released its proposal for a long-term solution for Holland Lake’s wastewater system.
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On Tuesday, a new proposal was finalized authorizing construction to begin next year.
The project will rebuild the aging wastewater system that serves the Holland Lake Campground, the RV dump station and Holland Lake Lodge.
Forest supervisor Anthony Botello said the project focuses on replacing and modernizing the existing wastewater system, which had tears in the lagoon liner.
“And so, with the replacement of that wastewater treatment system, the campground will be fully functional again, the RV dump station will be open after three years and the lodge will begin to be able to operate with the new ownership,” said Botello.
Botello said the design of the project will be smaller in scale than the original March proposal.
The treatment capacity is expected to be around 4,000 gallons per day in the summer and 1,600 gallons per day in the winter.
He said reducing the size of the aeration and storage lagoons reflects the drop in usage during the winter months, helping shrink the project's overall footprint.
“Through a lot of really good public involvement, a couple of different public meetings and some other stakeholder meetings, we revised those design parameters, and what will result in that will be a design of a much smaller system,” said Botello.
Grace Siloti lives in Condon and serves as president of Stewards of the Swan Valley.
She said the nonprofit is concerned about the overall size of the project and will be taking a close look at project documents.
“It’s not that you don’t want the lodge to open. We do. We want it to open, but we want it to be to scale of the size of our community and our environment and our water. But also, is it really fair to ask the people to pay for something that they’re not going to profit from?” said Siloti.
Botello said the lodge’s new owner, Eric Jacobsen, has five years to propose a master development plan, and no expansion plans have been brought forward to the Forest Service.
He said construction of the wastewater system will begin next year and finish in 2028.
Here's the full statement from Stewards of the Swan Valley:
“The Stewards of the Swan Valley will look at the Forest Service’s proposal to build a new wastewater treatment system that is larger than what is there now. We’re aware of concerns that the proposed wastewater treatment system is larger and the Forest Service will use millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build a system that primarily benefits the private lodge on public land. We’ll determine next steps based on a close analysis of the proposal and public comments.” – Grace Siloti, president, Stewards of the Swan Valley.
Project documents can be found here.
