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Nothing spells exciting like a new
septic system. But for Bill Heig of Bowen Lodge on Lake
Winnibigoshish, nothing could be more exciting than a chance to
better the environment.
Heig is installing a new septic system, one he hopes will
protect the environment around his second-generation resort,
which he owns with his wife Gail.
The system uses a fairly new technology based on peat
filtration, which itself is a byproduct of peat fuel operations
in Ireland and while the phrase “new technology” conjures up
images of big computers and fancy jargon, this system is as
simple as pumping the waste water to the site and letting the
peat do the rest.
Eric Larson of Septic Check, Inc., who was heading up the
system’s construction, said the peat is an ideal medium to allow
natural bacteria to treat wastewater. He said the peat gives the
bacteria a place to live and have access to oxygen. The peat
product used in the septic system is the byproduct of a peat
pelletization process in Ireland in which peat is extracted from
the country’s many bogs and turned into a burnable fuel source,
Larson said.
Don Dewey, environmental services administrator for Itasca
County, went to Bowen Lodge last week for an initial inspection
of the system. He said the Heig’s resort is an example of what
good conservation can be. “Bill is not under any order to do any
of this,” Dewey said. “He wants to take a step ahead and update
this system — not because the city or state is telling him he
had to.”
Heig said he wants to show that commercial operations can be
in the shoreline zone and still treat the environment with
respect and care. “We’ve been getting a lot of grief lately, it
seems like,” Heig said of his fellow resort owners around the
state.
Barb McCarthy, a pollution control specialist with the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, accompanied Dewey to the
inspection of the new system. She praised the layout and design
of the site.
At Bowen Lodge, the peat is contained in large tubs, or “pods,”
which are then arranged in clusters , with two “branches” of
pods moving away from each other. McCarthy noted that the nature
of the clusters allowed Heig to avoid unnecessarily cutting down
trees in the old-growth forest surrounding the resort. “And it’s
nice that he’s pulling waste away from the lake,” she said.
McCarthy helps develop rules and does enforcement for the MPCA,
but also has done research projects in the mid-1990s on new
septic systems and projects.
Dewey said in the past, septic systems were about disposal.
New systems, he said, are about long term protection. The peat
system is known as a pretreatment system, whereby the wastewater
is treated before it is sent to a drain field.
It was the perfect match for Heig, who said he wanted a
system that was better for the environment and “I did a lot of
research to try to find who had a lot of experience in
pretreatment and clustered systems,” Heig said.
For that, he called Larson and Septic Check. Larson said that
a peat system does cost a little more than a standard mound
system — anywhere from 10 to 25 percent more, depending on the
site — but costs less in the long run.
Fewer maintenance events and the longevity of the peat
product help accomplish the economy of the system. And that is
especially important for a family-run business like Heig’s. “It
makes not only environmental but economic sense,” Heig said.
Business is not the only thing that runs in the Heig family.
Respect for the environment does, too. Heig’s son, Jens, a
junior in high school, takes part in River Watch, a program
where high school students monitor waterways and analyze water
samples.
A new septic system isn’t the only area of the resort to
undergo a major environmental facelift. Bill Heig also spent a
lot of time, money and effort to ensure his shoreline was safe
from erosion and runoff.
Heig, with the help of the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources and the U.S. Forest Service, constructed a rip rap
wall, keeping erosion at bay and providing a 4,500-foot-long
buffer zone between the resort and Lake Winnibigoshish.
In the end, it comes down to respect for one’s surroundings
and doing your part to ensure nature’s beauty is around for a
long time, Heig said. “There are a lot of people who own
lakeshore who don’t feel responsible to pass on lakeshore to
future generations,” he said. And since his father, Bob Heig,
passed the resort on to him in 1982, Bill Heig seems determined
to keep that legacy. |
