Upper Woodchuck subdivision gets preliminary plat approval

by Michael Howell

On October 21, the Ravalli County Commissioners unanimously approved the Preliminary Plat proposal for Upper Woodchuck Estates 18-Lot Major Subdivision on 38.4 acres owned by Ron and Donna Carlson and Brian Beck. The property is located in the Eightmile Creek area and each lot averages about two acres in size. Access to the property is off of Upper Woodchuck Road.

During the review of potential negative impacts according to the state’s seven criteria, only a couple of the criteria drew public response and in depth discussion. 

The applicants proposed limiting water use in the subdivision to mitigate impacts on existing water user facilities downstream from the development. The property holds 38.44 water shares of Eightmile Creek Company and at full flow the subject property may receive 432.45 gallons per minute, approximately 621,000 gallons per day. Given the proposed 18 lots, each lot could receive up to 34,500 gallons per day. But the applicants propose to limit the irrigation water use on each lot to 805 gallons per day when water is available and require the landowners to install flow meters on each lot and place flow restrictors on the pipe coming off the 12-inch irrigation pipe mainline belonging to the irrigation company. They also propose limiting the irrigated lawn size to one-half acre on each two-acre lot.

Commissioner Greg Chilcott raised concerns about the proposed mitigation restrictions, stating that 90% of the landowner’s water was being, “sacrificed, ignored, not utilized and simply allowed to go downstream.”

Commissioner Jeff Burrows responded, “Which would you prefer, to have it go to water grass that’s going to get mowed and dumped in a compost pile or go to a downstream water user that’s producing hay or grazing cattle?”

Chilcott said his problem with it was the promulgation of weeds on the un-irrigated portion of the lots.

Brian Beck, owner and board member of the Eightmile Creek Company, responded, saying, “The problem with the irrigation water is that when there is a lot of water everybody’s happy. But we know we are in a drought year and we have restrictions on that. And we want to restrict water coming into the development. We are the first off the ditch and want other people down the line to have a chance.”

Chilcott noted that the new landowners in the subdivision would be paying for 100% of the shares for water from the ditch company but only using about 10%. He said he had trouble with 90% of the water rights not being used. “Those 90% of shares are now phantom shares floating out there,” said Chilcott. “They haven’t been severed or sold. We are retiring shares without retiring them. Can they sell them back to the company?”

Beck said shares could not be sold or transferred. He said the shares are dedicated to the property. 

Chilcott said that leaves 75% of each lot without any irrigation.

Beck said driveways and buildings will take up a substantial amount of square footage on those lots.

“I understand your problem,” said Beck. “I am on the board of  the Eightmile Irrigation District and it’s just been a struggle this year. Nobody is happy, so we are just trying to get ahead of the pitch on this and do our due diligence to do our best not to starve downstream users. That’s our goal. I’d like to see everything green. But you have end users downstream upset because they are not getting enough water because we are taking ours first. There is no magical solution.”

“So that’s a good deal for downstream water users because you are paying for the water and not getting the benefit,” commented Burrows.

The Commissioners found the impacts on agricultural water use facilities to be sufficiently mitigated.

The state criteria for impacts on the Natural Environment with respect to impacts on nearby surface water also became an issue. Commissioner Burrows noted that, according to the developer’s hydrological analysis, Eightmile Creek and Woodchuck Creek are not hydrologically connected to the Deep Basin Fill Aquifer due to a confining layer, therefore, there is no potential for contamination or depletion of these nearby water features. But in the same report it states that some wells on the property may be coming from the shallow basin aquifer created by a confining layer of clay.

Asked which wells would be in the deep aquifer and which would be in the shallow aquifer, hydrologist Howard Newman said there was no way of knowing until the wells were installed. 

Newman said that there would be no impact on the creek regardless of which aquifer was being tapped. He said the deep aquifer was not hydrologically connected to the stream for certain and though the shallow aquifer may or may not be connected to the creek they would still not impact the stream because the groundwater flow in the area was parallel to the creek and not flowing toward it. He said the ground flow in the area where the wells would be installed had been mapped and does not intersect Eightmile Creek.  

The developer’s report also indicated that neighboring wells down gradient could experience up to two tenths of a foot drawdown by the proposed groundwater use on the subdivision. 

The Commissioners found that the proposed mitigation measures for impacts on the natural environment to be sufficiently mitigated. Later in the meeting, however, Donine Delel, a resident living west of the proposed subdivision who had trouble getting connected by phone, made late comments expressing concern that the public information being used to make the decisions about the impacts on water were outdated and that the area had been severely impacted by drought since that data was collected. She thought an up-to-date study should be done. She said residents in the River View Subdivision to the west were currently measuring wells and have determined that the water table is dropping. 

“So all of this development is impacting all of us,” said Delel. “So I want you to know that we are very concerned and when you drop 18 more straws into either the shallow or deep aquifers in this area you are going to impact everyone further down gradient from you.”

The Commissioners’ final decision about the subdivision as a whole was that all identified potential negative impacts on the subdivision had been sufficiently mitigated and they approved the preliminary plat proposal unanimously.