A lawsuit filed against the Lakeside County Water and Sewer District alleges the public was not given adequate notice before the board approved construction of a new wastewater treatment facility and service for a proposed resort development.  

Watchdog group Citizens For a Better Flathead and district ratepayer Bruce Young filed the suit in Flathead County District Court on April 16. The plaintiffs allege the board failed to provide public knowledge or the ability to meaningfully comment on its Old Business agenda item “Territory 1889 Agreement document for signature” at its March 18 meeting.  

“Territory 1889” refers to undeveloped property known as the Lakeside Club, a luxury resort and golf course community proposed to be built above Lakeside by Flathead Friends LLC and Discovery Land Company, according to the lawsuit.  

The complaint also challenges the district's April 9 decision awarding a construction bid for the Phase I wastewater expansion without providing adequate notice or meaningful comment opportunities to the public, according to the lawsuit.  

The plaintiffs are seeking a writ of mandate that would compel the district to produce a capital improvements plan and perform mandatory notice and public participation respecting its March 18 and April 9 decisions, which would then become void, according to the lawsuit. They also want the district to promote a public participation policy in accordance with requirements of the Public Participation in Government Act.  

Members of Citizens For a Better Flathead have been attending Lakeside County Water and Sewer District board meetings for the past couple of years, said Executive Director Mayre Flowers. They’ve brought up issues surrounding public participation with the board before.  

"We’ve asked them to be more transparent, and they haven't responded. So that's why we find ourselves in this situation where we simply ask the courts and say ‘Our read of this is that they're not complying.’ If they agree, then they need to be held accountable for not following our public participation laws,” Flowers said.  

The group submitted several public document requests to the board leading up to the lawsuit. 

Many of those requests, including documents regarding the substance of the Lakeside Club service agreement were not returned, according to the lawsuit. The group also alleges the board failed to provide adequate notice of its April 8 special board meeting, which was in the meeting notices section of the local newspaper and on the district's website for 24 hours. 

Lakeside County Water and Sewer Board President Marc Liechti told the Inter Lake the district exceeded all legal requirements for public notice and participation. He added there’s a Citizens For a Better Flathead representative attending every meeting. 

“We tried to provide them with every document they requested.  We even invited them to the district office where they met for two hours with the manager to discuss their concerns in depth,” Liechti said in an email response. “Citizens’ real objection is not with the district’s public process (where we followed the law), but rather with the Territory 1889 project itself as well as our treatment facility upgrade.”  

Liechti said by suing the district on a public participation claim, the group is “forcing ratepayers to pay legal fees to defend a meritless lawsuit.” 

THOUGH NOT the subject of the lawsuit, Flowers said their members and some residents are raising environmental concerns, particularly when it comes to the construction of a new wastewater treatment facility that will be built on land the district already owns near the intersection of U.S. 93 and Somers Road. 

It’s part of an interlocal agreement set in March 2024 with the district and Flathead County to build and oversee a regional septage facility. The agreement provides federal American Rescue Plan Act funding for the project in exchange for septic waste acceptance, up to about $23.5 million for the district to build the facility and sets terms of its operations for the next 20 years.  

Proponents argued that Flathead County is in dire need of a place to dispose of septic waste, which would be built along with a screening and grit removal facility in Phase I of the project.  Phase II would be a specialized wastewater treatment facility to handle the district’s normal wastewater flow along with septage, increasing total treated water to roughly 900,000 gallons a day. 

Citizens For a Better Flathead raised concerns before the interlocal agreement passed. When the Flathead County commissioners were hearing comments on the proposal last year, Flowers asked them to pause their decision and urged them to work with the Department of Environmental Quality to find a long-term solution to the issue.  

Commissioner Pam Holmquist said at that meeting there was no rushing the decision, which had been discussed for years and would be permitted by the DEQ as the oversight agency for water and sewer districts.  

On April 28, the DEQ issued a final Montana Ground Water Pollution Control System permit for the wastewater facility.   

According to their release, the agency accepted public comments for more than 60 days and held a public hearing on Feb. 27 in Lakeside to collect oral and written public comments. The agency also met and consulted with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on March 20.

The permit meets the standards of the Montana Water Quality Act and allows the district to discharge treated wastewater into state ground water, according to the DEQ.   

To complete the expansion, Lakeside will need to apply for and receive DEQ approval of the remaining engineering upgrades.
 

Flowers said during the public comment period for the project, the group reached out to two local experts in groundwater and hydrological engineering who said the location of the facility could lead to contamination in Ashley Creek, eventually making its way to Flathead Lake. 

“We are extremely disappointed that the DEQ allowed this permit. We do not feel that they adequately addressed the factual information that was presented to the state as to why this was not an appropriate location for this expansion,” Flowers said. 

In the final Environmental Assessment for the project, DEQ personnel found minor impacts related to increased soil moisture as a result of the infiltration system, but no other impacts to geology and soil quality, stability and moisture. Though construction activities could temporarily contribute to some water quality issues on site, the DEQ found negligible or no impacts on water quality from the facility, noting the facility must operate within the bounds of their permit. 

The wastewater facility’s permit information, Environmental Assessment and other related documents can be found on DEQ’s website. 

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing [email protected].