Did you know the Jefferson County Sanitarian and County Health Board want to create a Clancy Special Management Area using the current Clancy Water & Sewer District (CWSD) boundary that runs between the Legal Tender Bistro on the north end to the Elkhorn Rehab Hospital on the south end and includes Old Alhambra? Did you know the intent of the Special Management Area is to give the County Sanitarian authority to require any new, some functioning, or replacement septic systems to install an ‘Advanced treatment systems’ also called ‘Level 2 septic systems’? Did you know the average cost of a Level 2 septic system is about $15,000? Did you know the Montana DEQ does not generally require Level 2 septic systems, but the County Sanitarian could require them in the Special Management Area?
Did you know the County Sanitarian and Health Board held what they called a Public Hearing on the creation of the Special Management Area on Tuesday May 18 in the Clancy Elementary School gymnasium? Did you know the County Health Board will vote on the Special Management Area on June 22 after the 30-day comment period?
No? I think that was the intent. Here is what you need to know:
First: I and others at the meeting questioned if adequate notice of the Public Hearing had been provided; turnout was poor. The Special Management Area proposal was not included in the Health Board’s usual monthly public meeting notice. That notice was a very obvious standalone ad with solid border on page two of the May 12 Boulder Monitor.
The notice of public hearing for the Special Management Area was not posted at the Clancy Post Office or Clancy Library. It was published in The Monitor’s legal notices section on May 5 and May 12. It did not contain details of the proposal, only instructing readers to look for more information to the Jefferson County website — without specific guidance about where to look amid dozens of links. (Just so you know, the proposal and description of the Special Management Area can be found at the Jefferson County website in the Environmental Health/Sanitarian website or at http://www.jeffersoncounty-mt.gov/documents/environmental_health/doc00579520210429093526.pdf.)
Conclusion: The Special Management Area hearing notice did not meet the intent and requirements of MCA Title 2, Chapter 3, parts 1 & 2 (Public Participation in Governmental Operations) for public meeting notices. This Act requires among other things “The procedures must ensure adequate notice and assist public participation before a final agency action is taken that is of significant interest to the public.”
Second: The proposed Special Management Area uses the existing CWSD boundary. This CWSD boundary was developed in the 2013 CWSD PER for a public wastewater system and again used in the 2018 CWSD PER for a public water system. At the meeting, the County Sanitarian stated that the Old Alhambra area does not have nitrates in its well water. I stated that in the several nitrate tests performed on my well water since 1992, no nitrates were present and that to the best of my knowledge there are no nitrate problems north of Clancy Creek.
In 2017, the CWSD Board had Montana Tech of Butte investigate well and surface water quality issues in the Clancy area. That report found that there is a groundwater nitrate/well water nitrate problem in a specific area of Clancy. It identified groundwater and well nitrate contaminations along the Clancy Creek Road corridor, from the interstate highway west to just past the Clancy Elementary School.
Conclusion: The Clancy Creek Road corridor is where a Special Management Area would make sense; but definitely not over the entire CWSD area. Also, I suggested that the Health Board explore funding sources for those who need to update their septic system. One option is the DNRC’s Private Grant Program, which supports 25% of septic system replacement cost up to $5000 maximum for County-certified failure of existing septic system.
Third: The problem this Special Management Area is supposed to address is a nitrate plume from Clancy that may be impacting Clancy Creek and Prickly Pear Creek, per MCA 75-5-301. The concern is that this nitrate plume may violate federal and state law, prompting state Department of Environmental Quality or federal Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions or loss of some funding for the county.
But the DEQ and EPA have already looked at the two creeks’ water quality in this area and found that nitrates are not an issue; the Prickly Pear Creek nitrate issues are in the Helena Valley. The only surface water concern in this area are heavy metals and sediment.
Montana Tech sampled the waters of Clancy Creek and Prickly Pear Creek for nitrates. The report states, “The Prickly Pear Creek concentrations ranged from 0.021 to 0.389 mg/L. Clancy Creek nitrate concentrations ranged from 0.111 to 0.415 mg/L. The Prickly Pear average longitudinal nitrate concentrations profile suggests that the nitrate concentrations slightly increase as the creek flows through Clancy. The nitrate from Clancy groundwater may be entering the Prickly Pear Creek, thus increasing the concentrations downstream of Clancy.” The slight nitrate bump in Prickly Pear Creek downstream of the creeks’ confluence is about 0.4-mg/L and then it drops to less than 0.2-mg/L within a mile downstream.
Conclusion: Circular DEQ-7 states the Trigger Value used to determine if a given increase in the concentration of surface water nitrate levels is significant or non-significant as per the EPA non-degradation rules is 4-mg/L of nitrate. The DEQ drinking water quality guidelines call 10-mg/L or greater a threat to human health. So a 0.4-mg/L nitrate level in Prickly Pear Creek is not a violation of nitrate limits per MCA 75-5-301 or violation of Federal/State water quality standards or a threat to human health.
Fourth: There is only a 30-day comment period after the so-called public hearing. On June 22, the Health Board can vote to create the Clancy Special Management Area, or not.
Conclusion: I support in general a required septic tank pumping/inspection maintenance program. However, I adamantly oppose the current Special Management Area proposal for reasons given above. A real, open public hearing in Clancy is needed if the Health Board continues to promote the notion of a Clancy Special Management Area. The area boundary needs to fit the real area that has a nitrate problem; not the arbitrary CWSD boundary.
If you reside within the CWSD boundary, send the Health Board your comments ASAP. The Health Board does not have a page on the Jefferson County website, a phone, or a contact person. The only way to comment is to mail your comment to Jefferson County Health Board, Box H, Boulder MT 59632. It is worth your time and cost of a stamp to write a quick and respectful comment letter to the Health Board on this matter. Please do so now.
Leitheiser is former president of the Clancy Water and Sewer District board.
