Regulations pondered for 'water lodges'

Seller pledges to address board’s concerns

SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s waterways committee began contemplating regulations Thursday addressing floating homes certified as watercraft.

Potential rules include limiting the size of the homes’ septic tanks or some type of moorage requirement.

The advisory board took no action on the proposed rules and will resume deliberations next month. In the meantime, committee members will be considering other potential regulations.

“Water lodges” made their Northwest debut at a Spokane, Wash., boat show earlier this year and immediately caught the attention of the public. But they also attracted some sideways glances from waterway and resource officials, who are concerned people will buy them to circumvent a moratorium on new float home development because they’re classified as a vessel by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Officials initially believed the floating lodges were equipped with a Y valve, which would allow wastewater to be easily discharged into a waterway, which is strictly forbidden by the Panhandle Health District.

But a seller of the lodges insisted they are not fitted with such valves.

“There are no Y valves,” said Ed Conley, a representative of the Elephant Boys, the Spokane company debuting the water lodges.

Still at issue, though, are the lodges’ 280-gallon wastewater tanks and how they would be used on Bonner County waterways. Members of the committee expressed doubt pump-out stations on the Pend Oreille would be able to handle that much waste. There also was concern people might purchase them with little thought as to where to moor or store them.

There are already a number of nuisance floating homes which make their way nomadically around the lake, said Cary Kelly, a committee member who supervises the sheriff’s marine patrol.

“That’s going to be a disaster,” Kelly said of a potential increase in the transient houseboat population. “These vessels are big. They need a home.”

A moorage requirement was discussed, but if a lodge ties into a permanent sewer system, it could be considered a new float home, which would violate the moratorium, according to Jim Brady, a senior resource specialist for the Idaho Department of Lands.

Committee member Todd Sudick suggested limiting the size of the lodges’ septic tanks as a way of fostering pump-out compliance, although there seemed to be agreement that making them too small could make them easier or more convenient to discharge.

“The department’s position is that if these things appear to be causing an impact to a resource, we will do something about it,” Brady said.

For his part, Conley said he was interested in the concerns about the water lodges and wants to see them resolved, even if it means scaling back septic tank sizes.

“It’s a chance to do it right and I’m open to doing it right,” Conley said.