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Motel, RV park still without showers, toilets

KEITH COUSINS/kcousins@cdapress.com | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 3 months AGO
by KEITH COUSINS/kcousins@cdapress.com
| June 18, 2015 9:00 PM

COEUR d'ALENE - It is still uncertain when residents at the Cedar Motel and RV Park in Coeur d'Alene will have access to showers and restrooms.

Last week, the Panhandle Health District received a complaint that the septic system, which served residents renting a spot for their recreational vehicles, had failed and raw sewage was being pumped into a hole dug on the property. The sewage was pumped out before the hole was filled Friday, and a long-term solution to the issue is still being discussed by area officials.

"Our environmental health staff is meeting with the city later this week to come up with plan for this property," Melanie Collett, spokeswoman for Panhandle, said. "The immediate public health hazard has been mitigated. We will keep you updated on the plan for a long-term solution as it develops."

Collett added that, since the septic system has completely failed on the property, Panhandle will not allow the bathroom and shower facilities to open until Cedar connects to the city's sewage lines.

But if the property owner continues to ignore the request, there is no clear next step.

"We wouldn't actually shut down a business," Collett said. "We're the ones who tell them they can't have the water running."

A resident at the RV Park who wished to remain anonymous told The Press Tuesday that sewage leaks into the ground in front of several of the motor homes on the property, and has been doing so for at least a year.

The resident said they did not want to be named because they "would be evicted instantly" if their name appeared in the paper.

"(I) have no place to go with my family," the individual said in an email.

The resident added that management told residents they would have to go without showers or toilets for an indefinite amount of time.

"They told one person that they could always move," the resident wrote. "But that's not really an option for some."

The property is owned by Covered Bridge Income LLC, located in Hayden. Ron Ayers is listed as the owner of the corporation, and was also the name associated with a request to repair the septic system for three of the trailers on the property in 2012.

That request was approved by Panhandle on May 28, 2012, under the condition that the property connect to the city of Coeur d'Alene's sewage system within a year.

Ayers did not respond to multiple attempts by The Press asking for a comment on the issue.

"I wonder if that's even the actual person," said Adrienne Cronebaugh, Kootenai Environmental Alliance executive director. "A lot of the time, the name on the deed isn't who is actually managing it. I've never been able to actually find them and I think they go to great lengths to not be accessible."

Cronebaugh added that Cedar Motel and RV Park has been on her organization's radar for a long time because of septic issues and the damage it does to Lake Coeur d'Alene. The sewage drains into the lake, she said, and the impact is immediate.

"The lake has over 100 million metric tons of toxic heavy metals encased at the bottom, which are being held there by a cold lake," Cronebaugh said. "That's (Cedar) one of so many sources leaking phosphorus, which is sewage, into the lake and it changes the chemistry of the water, allowing it to get warmer."

The warmer water allows algae to grow, she added, which could leave the lake permanently damaged.

"And the lake is the main economic driver for the county," Cronebaugh said.

Further compounding the issue is that, according to Cronebaugh, it is occurring at the worst possible location. The water intake valve, which serves hundreds of residents in the area, is right in front of the park.

"We'd like to see fines issued for that to get cleaned up," Cronebaugh said. "We've been hoping that a better steward of that property would move in and do the necessary upgrades to keep our lake safe."

She added that her organization has been advocating for policy changes to the Kootenai County land-use code, which currently requires a 25-foot vegetative buffer between developments and bodies of water. Rather than eliminating the buffer altogether, as she said some have proposed, Cronebaugh and her organization would like the buffer expanded.

"Then we don't have to continue to fight these individual battles with property owners like we have for more than 40 years," she added.

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