by Tony Owen, Corvallis
After reading “Septic pumpers face hard times” (Bitterroot Star 11/8/23), I found myself scratching my head with more questions than answers. Having spent 40+ years of my life in the drinking water and wastewater treatment professions, something is not adding up. Perhaps it is the manner in which the information was reported or perhaps my grasp of that information falls short.
To be clear, septage can be quite difficult for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to process through biological treatment. The City of Missoula has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the best interests of their “shareholders” (the citizens of Missoula) above other interests (septic pumpers). However, the article appears to point to pH as the limiting factor for the reduction of receiving septage from outside of the county. There is no mention of organic loading, total suspended solids, coliform or other “nasties” that can be contained within septage.
If pH is the only limiting factor (which I tend to doubt), septic haulers could mitigate that issue by the addition of specific constituents to their tank trucks to achieve a more neutral pH (7.0). That is not very practical or easy to achieve, but it can be done.
The real questions become: why is Ravalli County in this position and; what is the solution? I applaud the septic pumpers who, 20 years ago, brought this critical issue to the attention of the local governmental agencies. Unfortunately, it would appear as though that warning fell on deaf ears. I would admonish those agencies to get off their backsides, sooner rather than later, to honestly and openly address the matter and seek long-term solutions.