Sapphire Valley Estates conditionally approved

by Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Commissioners gave conditional approval last week to the Sapphire Valley Estates subdivision, a 33-lot development on a 49.22-acre parcel of formerly agricultural land near the intersection of Eight Mile Creek Road and Upper Woodchuck Road east of Florence. The land is being developed by Laura Watson of Watson Homes LLC who was represented by the engineering company Professional Consultants Inc. (PCI). 

The proposal is for single-family residential use with individual septic systems and wells. Irrigation will be provided by shares from the Eight Mile Creek Company. According to the preliminary plat the subdivision is anticipated to add approximately 11 new children to the Florence-Carlton School District and 264 new vehicular trips per day to the local road system. Additionally, the applicant is proposing to dedicate a 100-foot by 100-foot easement for the use and benefit of the Florence Rural Fire District and contribute $8,000 to the Florence Rural Fire District. 

The Commissioners received dozens of written public comments expressing concerns about the potential impacts to the roads, to public safety, to wildlife, and to the rural character of the area. A substantial number of comments expressed concern about the potential impacts to existing wells in the area that are already experiencing a lowering of static water levels and some already having to be drilled deeper. Concerns were also expressed about the impacts to other irrigators dependent on the Eight Mile Creek Company, storm runoff, and the impacts on Eight Mile Creek.

A recent court decision over a proposed subdivision in Broadwater County that could herald major changes in the subdivision review process across the state was also discussed. In that case, the Upper Missouri Waterkeepers and a group of residents living close to the proposed Horse Creek Hills subdivision challenged both Broadwater County and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) over the process and the lack of information about water quantity and quality, or impacts to wildlife on nearby landowners.

In his ruling, District Court Judge Michael McMahon criticized both the county and DNRC. He criticized the county for failing to do the proper analysis of the environmental impacts by handing off its mandated duties to other agencies and ignoring numerous specific, documentable, and clearly defined impacts to the environment such as the decreasing water abundance in the area and failing to analyze the impacts on the aquifer. 

“Thus, while the County is technically correct that the duty to provide the statutorily required information lies with 71 Ranch [the developer], the County is incorrect in its implication that the County can approve a subdivision without that information,” wrote McMahon.

With respect to the notion that there is no significant impact from exempt wells, McMahon states, “Implicit in this conclusion is the assumption that it is impossible for a compliant exempt well to impact water availability. Despite no analysis of what dozens of more wells would do to the aquifer, Confederate Gulch, or Canyon Ferry, the report nevertheless makes the superficial conclusion that exempt wells, as long as they are individually below the gallons per minute and acre feet limits, cannot impact on area water resources.”

McMahon found that the environmental assessment was deficient in numerous ways, particularly the repeated failure to assess impacts to nearby landowners and water. The barest minimum of information is disclosed about nearby surface waters and basically nothing is disclosed about the aquifer which would supply the project. No mention is made of the health of these waters, despite them being officially classified by the State as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act. The interaction of these waters is ignored entirely, as is the impact of either new wells or sanitary and storm wastewater, which is pawned off on the Department of Environmental Quality’s future determination. The environmental assessment is abjectly deficient, stated McMahon.

McMahon also noted that eight years ago, there were an estimated 113,000 exempt appropriations, with up to 78,000 more by 2020. Doing the math, he said, the exemptions could lead to billions of gallons of water being used with no permit required.

At the March 4th meeting, Ravalli County Commissioner Greg Chilcott said, “This decision throws a whole new level in the middle of a process. It puts the developers in a tough spot and the landowners in a new position. That’s where we are really struggling here. How do we change gears mid-stream on a court decision 160 miles away from us which may or may not impact us or may or may not be upheld by our court and the way we do business. Heretofore, DEQ was the reviewing agency with the expertise and knowledge and had the base studies to review consistently and without being arbitrary or capricious across the state. Now all of a sudden some judge in Broadwater County decides to turn and throw local government under the bus and require local government to do the analysis without finding a lot of local governments don’t have the capacity or staff to do that analysis. That puts us in a position where…” 

It’s at this point, 27 minutes into a five-and-a-half-hour discussion, the county video record on its web site goes silent. Although the commissioners were made aware of the audio failure on their Granicus account during the meeting, they continued the meeting for another five hours. Afterwards the planning staff told the Bitterroot Star that they were aware of the problem when it happened and were working to see if the audio could be recovered. Commissioner Jeff Burrows stated later that the meeting was available to the public on Zoom but that the Zoom meeting was not recorded. He didn’t know why.  He said that the minutes taken by the County Administrator would probably only contain the motions made and actions taken, leaving it unclear as to whether the county had any record of any public comments preceding the decision.

Asked at the meeting if the potential impacts of the proposed wells on Eight Mile Creek had been analyzed, PCI Consulting Engineer Andy Medford said, “No.” Pressed by Commissioner Burrows to answer the same question once again, Medford said that based on his 35 years of experience he “felt like” there would be no significant impact on the creek. He said that DEQ had found the wells to be exempt from permitting because the amount of water they used was “miniscule.”

The Commissioners adopted his remarks as a “finding of fact” and proceeded to determine that there would be no significant impact.