Developer’s plan to use septic systems OK’d by NPC commission – Lewiston Morning Tribune

Nez Perce County allowed four more septic systems in the Lewiston Area of City Impact on Wednesday, drawing the ire of Lewiston city officials who have been working to reduce septic impacts on groundwater quality.

County commissioners Don Beck, Douglas Havens and Douglas Zenner granted developer Joe Grecos request to waive a requirement for a dry sewer line that would eventually serve four out of the 16 lots in the preliminary plat for phase two of his Skyview Estates subdivision on Powers Avenue. The vote came after a public hearing Wednesday that was conducted electronically to comply with the coronavirus shelter-at-home order.

Greco said that at about $80,000, the line would not be practical to build. And since Public Health Idaho North Central District has already said the soil on the lots will support septic systems, he applied for the waiver.

But in her written comments objecting to the request, Lewiston Community Development Director Laura Von Tersch said the city gave up acreage in the impact zone in 2014 in exchange for the countys adoption of city development standards.

Unfortunately, many proposals have been approved without meeting standards such as one acre minimum on septics (when a sewer line is beyond 200 feet away), storm water, and more, Von Tersch wrote. Removing the requirement for the dry line on the four lots that can gravity flow to the sewer is a step in the wrong direction. It is only a matter of time before the situation demands a special assessment district or some other funding mechanism to bring sewer out to this area.

She added that the dry sewer line will make it easier for future homeowners to hook up to city sewer and avoid trenching through what will become landscaping, pavement and accessory buildings. In his response, Greco said it is unknown how much septic systems are contributing to nitrate pollution in nearby Lindsay Creek, noting the farmland that surrounds the drainage is also a likely contributor.

Greco also said the city sewer is more than 1,300 feet away from the most recent extension into the eastern Lewiston Orchards. A letter submitted by Michael Camin, a water quality engineering manager at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, said a nutrient-pathogen study is needed to evaluate whether the line is reasonably accessible. The city has requested such a study.

Camin also said that DEQ offered guidance to Public Health that multiple new septic systems at Skyview can further degrade water quality in this designated ground water nitrate priority area. Wastewater systems are outside of the departments purview, Camin added, and the department only approved the construction plans because they included drinking water infrastructure that meets minimum state requirements.

DEQ approval of the construction plans should not be construed as a preference for the dry line to be removed, he wrote.

Private homes built in phase one of the subdivision already added about 10 septic systems to the area before the sewer trunk lines installation in 2018. The Lewiston Urban Renewal Agency partnered with the city on that $2.1 million project to bring sanitary sewer to the area, with a primary goal of reducing pollution by getting homeowners to abandon their septic systems. Dozens of homes have already switched, and others have pledged to join them in the future.

At Wednesdays meeting, Zenner said the commissioners should approve the waiver because it meets the three main county subdivision requirements for access to the subject properties, a viable drinking water supplier in the Lewiston Orchards Irrigation District (Greco still has to build a booster station) and a way to treat wastewater from the future homes. And Havens downplayed the citys concerns over septic systems in general.

You cant just automatically say theres something incorrect about every single drainfield, Havens said, noting that a properly designed and installed system can effectively treat wastewater.

Havens also repeated his claim that a section of the nearby city sewer system was not planned and built properly, and is too narrow to handle the number of future hookups in the area. But Joe Kaufman, the citys engineering project supervisor for wastewater and stormwater, said the original design report for the line shows the section has a capacity for 2,800 homes.

The report outlines the 450 existing homes on septic systems, the 367 anticipated at Skyview Estates and an additional 450 of infill development in the spaces in between, Kaufman said in an email to the Lewiston Tribune.

This can provide some context for the 2,800 capacity, Kaufman said.

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Developer's plan to use septic systems OK'd by NPC commission - Lewiston Morning Tribune