Swift River Lodge owner Sharon Johnson and her brother, who helps run the business, have done everything they can to ensure both the sewage system and water system are safe for the public, territorial court heard Tuesday.

Charged with three counts of breaking the Yukon's public health act, Johnson defended herself throughout the proceedings.

The charges state she failed to comply with an order to close the restaurant, operating the restaurant without permission and failing to comply with an order to install a new sewage system by last June 30.

The lodge sits between Watson Lake and Teslin.

'We have done what is feasibly in our power to do,' she told the court when she took the stand in her own defence.

She said a UV treatment system had been installed along with changes made to the sewage system.

Before she addressed the court, territorial Crown prosecutor Kim Sova called civil engineer Niels Jacobsen and then Yukon environmental health officer Gregory Tone to the stand.

The court heard Jacobsen, who does contract work for the government, was asked to do an assessment on the Swift River Lodge in May 2004.

He examined the water and sewage systems, finding that the well casing was uncovered at the time and was about nine to 10 1/2 metres (30 to 35 feet) from the septic tank.

The well was also deemed a shallow well at about 10 1/2 metres, which can also present a higher risk of contamination.

'That didn't seem to me to be a very sanitary water system,' he said.

The sewage system had been installed in the late 1970s and included two steel septic tanks and a leech pit system. In the 1980s, the guidelines for new sewage systems were changed in favour of in-ground systems rather than the leech pit method, Jacobsen said.

He noticed sewage piling above ground when he was doing his 2004 assessment.

'That indicated to me a failure of the system,' he said.

With an unprotected water well, Jacobsen said, his opinion was there was a high risk to the water supply system.

Among his recommendations, Jacobsen suggested the sewage system be replaced with one that follows current guidelines, that the business deal immediately with the sewage he noticed, that a well pumphouse be constructed, the well-head be properly capped to prevent contaminates from entering the water supply and that the nearby basement of a house being used for the system be abandoned and cleaned up.

While he went over his concerns with Johnson, he also told her he didn't have the authority to tell her to do anything.

His findings were submitted to health services officials.

When Jacobsen was asked to go back for a follow-up in March 2006, he found a pumphouse had been constructed over the water well and a UV treatment system put in place.

There was also work being done on the piping, he said.

'The septic system had not changed,' he said.

The UV system for the water also raised concerns, he said. It would have needed to have a higher intensity with a function that would shut the system down automatically if it was not working.

'There were some fairly significant health and safety risks,' he said.

Tone accompanied Jacobsen on the assessment after issuing the order that the restaurant be closed and a new sewage system installed by June 30.

The order was an extension of a February 2005 order requiring the sewage system to be installed.

In numerous visits to the lodge, Jacobsen said, he told Johnson of her Charter rights and asked whether she would be serving food and drinks made in the kitchen.

Johnson was permitted to sell pre-packaged food like pop and chips.

Tone said Johnson told him on two occasions she would be opening the restaurant as a matter of business survival. He also said he saw two people eating hamburgers and then pay Johnson, though he never questioned what they were paying her for, as she noted in her testimony.

She also told the court that while she had told Tone she intended to open the restaurant, he hadn't shown proof that she had.

On previous closure orders, she said, people had been forced to sleep in their vehicles in her driveway, eating chips and pop while they waited for help when they were having vehicle problems because the hotel, restaurant and bathrooms were all closed.

'We are a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere,' she said.

She pointed out that she and her brother had cleaned up the leech pit site and were trucking sewage from the septic tanks to a disposal unit because it's not feasible to pay a Whitehorse company $700 each week to drive to Swift River and dispose of the sewage.

The closure orders have seen extensive revenue from bus tours, motorists and others disappear, she said.

Financial lenders have also pulled out of plans to build a new sewage system and building because of how long it took to get the land needed.

She pointed out there's been no indication from water tests that there's a problem with her water. While she hasn't proved her septic tanks are airtight, the territory hasn't proved they're leaking, he said.

The pit was sealed off and work done to ensure sewage went only into the tanks, she said.

'There's no sign of that being a problem,' she said.

As Tone noted though, water tests look for bacteria only, and not viruses that might be in the water.

In other cases, she said, businesses have been ordered to boil water when there's an issue.

Johnson argued the business has acted on 'reasonable requests' including serving only coffee and baked goods, prepared elsewhere, to bus tours. She also proposed Swift River Lodge be permitted to sell barbecued goods in the driveway of the lodge.

Both requests were denied.

By ordering the closure, the business has lost money it could have used to properly put in a new system and build a new lodge, she told the court.

The territory, she said, hasn't shown there was enough reason to order the closure of the restaurant, especially given the risk there is to the travelling public when they don't have access to the only year-round lodge between Watson Lake and Teslin.

She noted the lodge is the only lodge between the two towns open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

Visiting Judge Gerald Barnable is set to deliver his decision Friday afternoon.