Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Did Hailey jump the gun on sewer expansions?

City grapples with stricter EPA requirements


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

Treated wastewater discharge limits imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to protect The Big Wood River are causing Hailey to reassess some of its sewer line extension plans.

The city of Hailey may have jumped the gun in the last few years by extending city sewer services to developments outside the city limits.

City officials are only now realizing the scope of problems Hailey may have with the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the discharge of pollutants from its sewer plant into the Big Wood River, prompting the city to take a more critical look at any new developments asking for city services.

On Jan. 13, City Engineer Tom Hellen will meet with officials at the state Department of Environmental Quality in Twin Falls to push for a compromise agreement on suspended-solids discharge requirements handed down by the EPA. A compromise could save the city big money in wastewater facility upgrades.

The city's wastewater treatment facility in Woodside is fairly new, having goneinto operation in September 2000, with a capacity of 1.6 million gallons per day. Currently it processes about 600,000 gallons of sewage per day, to very high standards, before discharging the effluent into the Big Wood River.

Yet those standards may not be strict enough.

In 2002 the EPA approved a "total daily maximum load limit" for the city for allowable suspended solids to be discharged into the river. Hailey was allowed 18 pounds per day, a limit challenged by a city-initiated Department of Water Quality study in 2006 that called for 44 allowable pounds day.

So far, the EPA has not told the city which standards it will have to meet. Hellen hopes to get some answers in January at the Department of Environmental Quality, which acts as a liaison between the EPA and municipalities.

"It's just hanging out there," said Hellen. "We want something to happen."

In the past few years, the city thought it had a surplus of wastewater capacity, and dedicated some of it to developers with land in Blaine County, in Croy Canyon's Democrat Gulch and north of the city at Peregrine Ranch.

By paying to hook up to city sewer services, those developers were able to increase their building densities well above county zoning standards.

Now the city is reassessing some of those agreements in light of a recently completed wastewater master plan.

Last week Peregrine Ranch developer Harry Rinker was denied a five-year extension of an agreement he struck with the city in 2005 to extend sewer services to his 160-acre property. Rinker has plans to build 72 homes and a nine-hole golf course there, but City Council members told him they would make no decisions on extending their agreement until after the January meeting.

One year ago the city agreed to extend sewer services to the pproposed 115-home Spring Canyon Ranch development two miles into Croy Canyon in Democrat Gulch. The planned Croy Canyon Ranch elder-care facility had plans to take advantage of the extension, which would reach two miles from the city limits into Croy Canyon.

"When the city agreed to these extensions, we did not know the full implications of the EPA requirements," said Hellen. "We could have been more cautious."

Hellen said if he is successful in pushing his proposal through at the EPA, Peregrine Ranch and Spring Canyon Ranch will have less of an impact on the city's needs to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility.

"The stricter limits would place a huge strain on us within five to 10 years," he said. "The city would have to add additional technology and additional capacity to get to these limits."

Sonny Buhidar, Department of Environmental Quality regional water quality manager, said the department will listen to Hailey's comments and try to work toward an agreement that the city can afford. The department makes annual compliance tests for wastewater facilities discharging into "Segment 2" of the Big Wood River. Those include testing discharge sources in Hailey, Ketchum and the Cold Springs private wastewater facility.

"The big problem all the cities in this region have is growth—population growth and economic development," Buhidar said. "Even though it is possible with the right technology to treat to zero suspended solids, to get there costs lots and lots of money."

Hailey will not know how much, if any, it will have to spend on upgrades until after the January meeting. In addition to providing technical assistance to municipalities challenged with meeting EPA standards, Buhidar's department provides revolving loan funds for wastewater facility upgrades.

Buhidar said Idaho's Special Resource Water designation of the Big Wood River calls for some of the highest purity standards in the state. The standards call for low bacteria loads for swimmers, consistent temperatures for wildlife, and the possibility of treating the river water to drinking-water standards.

"The EPA has a history of reducing the allowable discharge limits every five years," he said. "But in my experience, when these negotiations take place, the EPA limits are never the same as the ones they start out with," Buhidar said.




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