Holland Lake Lodge owner: Business unlikely to fully open this summer due to sewer issues

One of the owners of the historic Holland Lake Lodge said the business is unlikely to fully open this summer due to concerns around a planned short-term fix to its sewer system that some Swan Valley residents and others said could leak.

The U.S. Forest Service-owned wastewater treatment system that serves the lodge failed in 2023, but a long-term federal replacement project currently open for public comment could allow guests back into the business.

Meanwhile, the lodge secured a Missoula County permit to partially open for events this summer using a temporary wastewater holding tank already on site. Lodge owner Eric Jacobsen told the Missoulian Tuesday night the short-term fix will not be used by the lodge this summer until leak tests can be done to prove it's safe.

"We cannot and will not open until we have an approved, safe septic solution, (a) working sewer system," Jacobsen said in a phone call.

Several residents and a nonprofit group are concerned the short-term fix could leak effluent, and say plans for a long-term replacement indicate the owners are eyeing a larger expansion of the historic lodge in the future.

While the longer-term wastewater replacement is expected to serve the same daily capacity of waste the current system does, the two lagoons that are included would be large enough to hold five times as much waste as the current system, according to the proposal.

"There is a lot of smoke and mirrors with the (Forest Service) proposal," said Dean Johnson, a Missoula resident who attended a recent public meeting about the lagoons in Condon, in a phone call. "They have been really good about giving broad statements, but they seem unwilling to share details."

Flathead National Forest spokesperson Kira Powell told the Missoulian the increased size of the lagoon is a result of modernized standards rather than a need for increased capacity.

"The size of the lagoons was designed by a professional engineering firm to accommodate the amount of use that the current permit allows, to industry standards that account for rain and snow melt," Powell wrote in an email.

Jacobsen secured a 20-year permit in 2025 to operate the lodge with its existing capacity, the Missoulian previously reported. He said he has not submitted any new applications for a lodge expansion.

But Jacobsen told the Missoulian on Tuesday night that a future expansion of the lodge "is needed" to make the business economically viable, although he indicated it wouldn't be as expansive as past proposals.

Any change from the existing use permit would require approval from the Forest Service, alongside an opportunity for the public to comment.

Concerns around leaks 

While they wait for the larger replacement proposal to go through the approval process, the lodge owners are seeking a short-term sewer fix to possibly open this summer by using a holding tank already on property to temporarily store wastewater, which was approved by the Missoula Health Board in February.

That approval requires that the temporary holding tank passes a leakage test before the system is used by the lodge. As of Tuesday, no leak test has been scheduled, according to the Missoula City-County Health Department.

The short-term proposal would use a 50-year-old holding tank as the main wastewater collection system. The tank would be frequently pumped to remove the waste and chemical toilets would serve as a backup to the plan.

Save Holland Lake, a nonprofit group that formed to oppose an expansion of the lodge when it was under previous ownership in 2023, contended in a March 4 letter that if the holding tank is approved for use, the system could leak into the nearby groundwater. The system sits about 100 feet from Holland Lake.

"This is putting the cart before the horse, as the Board’s decision to grant a variance must be supported by substantial evidence in the record," the letter reads. "The record is missing key baseline information about the tank and the lodge’s usage."

Shannon Therriault, the environmental health director for the health department, said several options are still being weighed by the lodge owner, like possibly installing a new holding tank, which would be required if the existing tank shows signs of leaks.

"They are just taking a look at all of it to see if it works within their capacity," Therriault told the Missoulian in a phone call.

Jacobsen said a full test of the system will not happen until a period of high groundwater, likely in May. He said even if the holding tank is approved, there is still about six months of work to get the lodge open.

There could be some limited possibility to open the lodge this summer to some event services, but not to overnight guests.

"We will be very limited in what we can do until the full system is in place," Jacobsen said. "I could see us pouring a few beers for people enjoying the lawn or hosting a wedding, but we will not be in a position to do much else."

The lodge owners previously said they hoped to host special events like weddings in 2026. Jacobsen said as of Wednesday, no weddings have been scheduled at the lodge and won't be booked until an opening date is identified.

In February, Jacobsen told the Missoula Health Board that he will follow all rules required of the lodge.

"We want to walk into this as opposed to run into this," Jacobsen told the board. "What I mean by that is we do not want to set an opening date and take reservations and fill the restaurant and be at capacity out of the gate."

Concern over future lodge expansion

David Roberts, a member of the Save Holland Lake, told the Missoulian this week he believes the Forest Service is proposing a larger lagoon to eventually serve the lodge year-round.

For the last 20 years, the lodge has primarily been open in the summer time, but was partially open in the winter months decades ago.

"My biggest concern is this could ruin Holland Lake in the next five years because of a failure," Roberts said. "I also don't believe in tax dollars supporting a private business expansion."

The lodge is a private business that sits on Forest Service land and operates under a special use permit.

Jacobsen told the Missoulian a future expansion of the lodge facility could allow it to be open for more days out of the year, adding they may eventually build a few more cabins, but he has yet to put forth any formal proposal.

"I do not want to build a hotel on the banks of Holland Lake, that does not serve the lodge's mission here in my eyes," Jacobsen said on Tuesday. "We are hoping to operate year-round and build a few more cabins one day."

Jacobsen told the Missoulian his existing permit would allow for year-round operations, but it would be about five years before the footprint could be expanded for additional overnight guests.

The Forest Service said in a memo this month that the proposed long-term sewer system fix would not change the existing capacity of the wastewater system, but is meant to modernize it.

The system serves the lodge, a public RV dump station and part of the Forest Service Holland Lake Campground.

Part of the plan calls for demolishing some nearby septic tanks and instead streamlining the waste process directly into the two sewage lagoons. The lagoons treat the effluent, which is sprayed into nearby forested lands.

The plan also calls for increasing the elevation of the lagoons by 10 feet, significantly expanding the lagoons and requiring 15,000 cubic yards of new materials to complete the work.

The Forest Service aims to use a categorical exclusion to the complete the longer term replacement. A categorical exclusion is a system used by the federal government to bypass some environmental requirements from a project.

The Forest Service is seeking public feedback on the replacement proposal through April 1. People can comment electronically through the Forest Service's project page website.

People can also submit written comments to Sarah Canepa, Swan Lake Ranger District, 200 Ranger Station Road, Bigfork, Montana, 59911. For more information, visit the project page on the Flathead National Forest website.

Powell noted the larger replacement proposal is not final, although it could be approved as soon as June, with construction planned to start later this summer.