A high water table in Whitefish has complicated the city’s search for land to develop a new cemetery.

Soil testing at two preferred city-owned sites showed potential problems with groundwater at both locations. The search may now focus on private land, depending on what the Whitefish City Council decides to do.

The council will discuss the cemetery search at its meeting on Monday.

Close to two years ago a committee appointed by the council began exploring options for new burial grounds because the existing city cemetery established in 1918 just east of the Whitefish Golf Course is full. The committee concentrated on city-owned land because Whitefish hasn’t earmarked money to buy land for a cemetery.

After an exhaustive process that included a survey of city utility customers and lots of publicity about the project, the committee identified two possibilities: the City Shop site off West 18th Street and a site near the Whitefish River off JP and Monegan roads.

Then the city spent about $14,300 for soil testing. High groundwater at the City Shop site took that property out of the running, but the committee held out hope for the river site.

“The river site seemed to be the property that kept coming up as a more appropriate site of the two city sites,” Whitefish City Clerk and Cemetery Committee Chairwoman Necile Lorang wrote in the committee’s latest report to the council.

Among the benefits of the river site were a lower water table, ample acreage, better topography for a natural separation of areas for conventional and green burials and the scenic nature of the land.

While the river site showed a groundwater level below six feet, further investigation landed on a World Health Organization report that states the base of all burial pits must maintain a minimum of one meter clearance above the highest natural water table.

The city’s practice is to enclose caskets in a cement vault, the committee report noted.

A report done by Applied Water Consulting further muddied the water for the river site, pointing out that groundwater in that area discharges into the Whitefish River.

“Therefore it is recommended that the embalming chemicals and other degradation byproducts be evaluated to discern their potential of contaminating the Whitefish River,” Applied Water Consulting wrote in its report.

Several Cemetery Committee members continue to have reservations about the river site, so that option won’t be recommended. Instead, the committee is recommending the city pursue the purchase of a plot of private land that recently came to the committee’s attention. The location of that land hasn’t been disclosed and no sale price has been discussed yet.

A couple of earlier proposals from private property owners near the Armory Park softball fields didn’t pan out — also because of high groundwater in that area.

The committee gave the council several recommendations to consider, such as considering expansion by “in-fill” at the current cemetery.

Other suggestions were to design a new cemetery with single and family plots and determine whether the city should add a crematory structure to the current cemetery.

The city also should determine if an environmental impact statement would be needed to develop a cemetery, the committee recommended.

The committee is scheduled to disband by Jan. 13, 2013, under terms of the resolution that created the group. The ball is now is the City Council’s court on how to proceed.

The first push for a Whitefish cemetery was mentioned in the Whitefish Pilot in 1905, and over the years that followed, several committees were appointed to check out suitable sites, according to the book, “Stump Town to Ski Town.”

Until the cemetery was opened in 1918, “Whitefish citizens buried their dead in Kalispell or Columbia Falls, in the woods or event in back yards,” the history book noted.

The city annexed the cemetery into the city in 1979. The Whitefish Lake Golf Course maintains the cemetery as part of its lease agreement with the city.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.