No significant impact from sewage leak

A hole in a sewage pipe near St. Regis discovered last Friday sent more than 40,000 gallons of raw sewage down the Clark Fork River, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Bill Naegeli, head of Sanders County Emergency Management, said that he was notified by the DEQ that a wastewater lagoon force main had a complete break in a section on the Clark Fork River.

“It’s already flushed through here,” Naegeli said on Tuesday. He said that normally situations are reported to the state DEQ, who notify everyone downstream. However, he said he first learned of the incident from his counterpart in Mineral County. Once aware of the situation on Friday afternoon, Naegeli notified Sanders County Commissioners, the county sanitarian and the sheriff’s department.

The leak was discovered Jan. 11, and on Jan. 12, Trenchless Solutions of Missoula deployed a scuba team to find and fix the leak. DEQ reported that a temporary patch was put in place until a permanent solution can be installed.

Naegeli said that based on DEQ calculations, the maximum amount of sewage they figured could have gone through was 41,000 gallons. He said that an incident like that in St. Regis doesn’t affect drinking water because the county does not have any public water systems drawing out of the Clark Fork.

“In perspective of the flow of the Clark Fork, it’s not a significant amount and doesn’t have a significant impact,” Naegeli said.

Naegeli said that if it would have been during the summer recreation season or if there had been a boat race or bass tournament locally, “It would have been a different story. This time of year, not a lot of people are on the river.”

He said his biggest concern was not getting notified form the state level in a timely manner, but that he has already address the issue with the state.

DEQ will continue to monitor the situation. Naegeli said that the area of the break was where the pipe was originally three to four feet under the river bed, but with high water in recent years, there is not 80-plus feet of pipe exposed there.