Another Turd Farm?
By voting to permit a subdivision called the Blue Heron Estates is the Missoula County Board of Commissioners putting people in harm's way? By Bill Vaughn
 

On Feb. 3, 2010 the County Commissioners rubber-stamped a 75-acre subdivision called “Blue Heron Estates” in Grass Valley near the Clark Fork River ten miles downstream from ground zero in Missoula. The rookery of Great Blue Herons nesting in a pair of enormous cottonwoods a stone’s throw from this subdivision will not be amused. While the Commissioners were gushing about the “no-build zones” provided by the owner, “protections” for the “riparian area,” and the lovely “path” that was promised, they ignored evidence that showed extensive flooding on this property in 1997. In fact, a flood relief channel of the Clark Fork River divides the property, which would be more aptly named "A River Runs Through It."

Images captured by Montana Aerial Photography reveal how much surface water is flowing through the property. And this was the result of a minor cyclical event the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called a ten-year flood.

But even this amount of overflow easily breached the county lane the developers intend to use as access (the county promises to “build up” this lane, which will have the same effect as constructing a dam). Little wonder the Commissioners decided to forbid homeowners from digging basements at Blue Heron Estates. They remembered another pair of subdivisions they approved along Grant Creek, where basements filled up in 1997 with raw sewage, leading wags to describe these neighborhoods as “The Turd Farm.”