Your comments are needed by April 1 to prevent the 5-fold expansion of the private Holland Lake Lodge sewer at public expense!
Taxpayers will pay for it, but the private Lodge will get all of the increased sewage capacity!
Your comments are due by April 1, using the online form at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=68935 . If that form isn't working, you can email your comments to Swan Lake District Ranger Sarah Canepa at sarah.canepa@usda.gov or mail her at 200 Ranger Station Road, Bigfork, MT 59911.
Here are some suggested comments to make or add to your own:
a. We don’t want over $3 million of public taxpayer money spent to build a huge sewer system that primarily benefits the private owners of Holland Lake Lodge and provides opportunity for them to greatly expand their operations on public land!
b. The current sewage system can meet current capacity for 25 years if repaired at far less expense, rather than having the sewage lagoons enlarged by five times, requiring some 1500 dump truck loads of fill to build the berms to contain the enlarged lagoons.
c. We further object to the private Holland Lake Lodge being allotted all of the increased sewer capacity while the public Holland Lake Campground maintains its current share of the sewage capacity – resulting in a 90% private:10% public split of the capacity.
d. You cannot use a Categorical Exclusion from preparing an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement for this scale of a sewage treatment facility.
e. An EIS is also required to examine the cumulative impacts of the connected actions of the size of the sewage plant that will then provide for expansion of the Holland Lake Lodge facilities – which were granted a Forest Service permit without firstly submitting an Operations Plan.
These suggestions are taken from our comment letter, which you can see here, along with 3 excellent graphics created by Save Holland Lake.
You can read about the Forest Service's proposal at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/flathead/projects/68935 .
You can get the bigger picture by reading or watching KPAX TV News' coverage of a public meeting in this matter here.
You can revisit our protests over the Lodge being granted a Forest Service Special Use Permit without firstly filing an Operating Plan here.
Thank you for taking a few moments by April 1 to let the Forest Service know what you think of this proposal.
Fish, wildlife and people are counting on you!
