Forming a water and sewer district could provide ‘a lot of horsepower to get some things accomplished’
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Residents of Big Sky’s Firelight Meadows neighborhood will have an opportunity to establish their own water and sewer district in the upcoming May 7 election—a mail-ballot only election.
At least 40% of all registered voters in the 216-door Firelight Meadows HOA must vote in favor of the initiative for it to pass. If the water and sewer district is created, it could open doors for funding and flexible financing opportunities as the Firelight community explores ways to become compliant on wastewater treatment standards set by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. With more year-round residents and consistent renters than anticipated in initial design, Firelight Meadows has outgrown its septic infrastructure.
Firelight resident Karen Macklin recently took charge of the multi-year effort to bring the neighborhood’s infrastructure back to a healthy baseline.
She said the upcoming election will be a big push.
“We’ve got to get people educated to understand that this is our best step moving forward,” Macklin told EBS in a phone call. She said renters and owners will have until April 12 to register for the local election.
Even Firelight owners who are registered elsewhere can register for this ballot item by April 12. Ballots will be mailed by Gallatin County the following week.
On Tuesday, March 26 at 6 p.m., a town hall meeting will be held at the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District to provide information about Firelight’s current situation, and answer questions about the creation of a water and sewer district. The public is invited, especially residents of Firelight Meadows.
“It was determined that for us to make progress, we were going to need some funding, so we decided to apply for bonds and grants,” Macklin said. “But you have to be a water and sewer district to be able to do that.”
She explained that when Firelight was created in 2003, the developer chose to implement a stand-alone septic system. Because Firelight was not platted, Big Sky’s water and sewer district was “not part of the equation,” Macklin said.
Creating a water and sewer district would allow Firelight to apply for bonds, flexible financing, and federal, state and local grants. The alternative could be expensive—costs of a septic overhaul or construction of a small-scale water treatment plant would be passed directly to ratepayers, through Firelight’s current water and sewer utility, West Fork Utilities.
As a district, Firelight could potentially tie into the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District. Macklin said that makes a lot of sense, and BSCWSD is interested.
“Their first task is a big one, to form a district,” Ron Edwards, BSCWSD general manager, told EBS. “If they are successful in that, it really opens up the door for them… That gives them a lot of horsepower to get some things accomplished.”
Firelight’s water and sewer district could secure a “killer” 2.5% interest rate on state loans, Edwards suggested, among other advantages.
Edwards sees two main options: Firelight residents could acquire the system currently owned by West Fork Utilities, “but then they’d own the problem,” he said; otherwise, as a district, Firelight could enter a service agreement with BSCWSD. Gallatin Gateway has a similar arrangement with the Four Corners Water and Sewer District, he noted.
If Firelight Meadows can establish the district and use grants and competitive financing to build the infrastructure to transfer wastewater into the BSCWSD’s brand-new, $50 million Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility, that would offer “much better, higher levels of treatment,” Edwards said.
“If they don’t figure it out and get their district put together… then eventually they’ll have to build a [treatment] plant, and it might be $5 million or something like that,” he added. Macklin said that could be “quite a burden” on residents.
Edwards will be at the March 26 town hall to help answer questions.
Kristin Gardner, chief executive and science officer for Gallatin River Task Force, and owners of West Fork Utility will also be present.
Macklin said Firelight’s petition process had been attempted a couple of times, and it finally went through this fall, earning the potential district a spot on the May 7 ballots. She needed 10% of the campus to sign and went door-to-door to collect signatures.
She’ll need a lot more than 10% to vote—she estimates about 70% of Firelight residents would need to vote to reach the minimum threshold and account for those who will vote “no.”
Macklin emphasized that there’s no cost to create a district.
“All it does is gets us seats at the table. Now people can negotiate with us, we can try to make something happen, we can talk about getting grants,” she said.
The creation of a district might help save money in the process of an upgrade, but environmental degradation is the impetus.
When Firelight eventually reaches a water treatment solution, “we would have fewer nutrients seeping into our water table and into the river,” Macklin said. In turn, that could raise property values—nobody wants to live in a neighborhood that’s polluting the river, she added.
“We want to make sure that we are stewards of the land that we live in,” Macklin said.
She hopes her neighbors will attend the March 26 town hall, and vote “yes” for a move toward increasing the quality of Firelight’s water and sewer services.
