LA PINE – If nothing is done to improve this southern Deschutes County community’s septic systems, the majority of wells that provide drinking water here would eventually need to be treated to make the water suitable to drink, according to federal and state officials.

The average level of nitrates in the local aquifer would triple in the next 40 years if the status quo is maintained, said David Morgan, a ground-water specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to more than 130 area residents at a public information session on Tuesday night.

”I would say that’s dangerous,” Morgan said in an interview after his presentation.

Nitrates are an organic compound found in fecal matter, blood, fertilizer and other sources.

Research on the effects of ingesting nitrate over long periods of time have revealed higher incidences of miscarriages and certain types of cancer, said Rod Weick, a hydro-geologist with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), in an interview before the meeting.

Oregon’s DEQ and the USGS held the meeting to provide an update to the public on an ongoing $5.5 million project to study groundwater in southern Deschutes County and assess the performance of 14 kinds of ”innovative” septic systems, said Barbara Rich, DEQ’s coordinator for the project.

The project covers an area of southern Deschutes County up to 525 square miles, she said.

Innovative septic systems are billed by their manufacturers – some of whose operations are based in Bend, Kansas and Germany – as being more efficient in eliminating nitrates from waste than those currently used by the vast majority of La Pine residents.

The innovative septic systems can operate ”like miniature wastewater treatment plants in your yard,” Rich said.

Existing area septic systems do not remove nitrates from waste before it is discharged into drain fields, Weick said. What compounds the problem in La Pine, Weick said, is the lack of infrastructure to handle waste from a community with urban-like density in a rural area.

The project is scheduled to finish sampling the 49 installed innovative septic systems in December 2004, Rich said.

Possible solutions to La Pine’s situation include a DEQ-imposed regulation for the area, Rich told the audience. It could be something like requiring the advanced treatment of waste to remove nitrate before it is released into a drain field.

Southern Deschutes County would become the sixth region in Oregon to receive a DEQ administrative rule, Rich said.

Officials overseeing the project plan to recommend several of the innovative septic systems to area residents when the project is completed, Rich said.

They range in price from roughly $7,500 to $15,000 – but costs could decline if demand increases, she said.

Officials also said that one of the project’s aims is to create a low-interest loan program.

Stephen Hinkle, a USGS hydrologist, told the crowd that a 2000 study of 193 wells – with an average depth of 20 feet to 50 feet – revealed that it took between 11 and 62 years for water to travel to those wells.

Nitrate is not now a widespread problem.

But, ”there is a nitrate problem in the making,” he said.

The officials used a computer-generated presentation to show projected nitrate build-ups in the aquifer under various scenarios.

Installation of septic systems that limit nitrate to levels between two milligrams per liter and 10 milligrams per liter would ultimately result in aquifer nitrate levels diminishing to less than 10 milligrams per liter over a period of decades, Morgan said.

Nitrate above 10 milligrams per liter is considered a health risk.

Reaction to the presentation was mixed.

”I think they’re wrong,” Leon Shields, who lives south of La Pine, said after the meeting. The 54-year-old pumps septic tanks for a living.

Shields said the nitrate is unlikely to contaminate drinking-water wells. A handful of people agreed with him.

”Nitrates aren’t going down (into the groundwater) – they never will,” he said. ”The water is flowing across the top (of the aquifer).”

He did concede, however, that a problem could exist in some areas and that an innovative septic system could be useful in those places.

Others, such as Kim Russell, felt comforted they had learned more about the situation.

”They presented it in a helpful way,” said the 40-year-old La Pine excavator, after the meeting. ”It shows there is a solution.”

Mike Cronin can be reached at 541-617-7836 or mcronin@bendbulletin.com.