Hailey City Engineer Tom Hellen will meet with officials at the state Department of Environmental Quality in Twin Falls next week to push for an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency over how much treated wastewater effluent the city can discharge into the Big Wood River. Until Hellen gets a response, the city may have to curtail extensions of city sewer services to developments outside the city.
City Councilman Fritz Haemmerle said there is no moratorium on extending sewer services outside the city.
"But there should be," he said.
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In recent years city officials dedicated what they thought was a surplus of wastewater treatment capacity at the city's Woodside treatment facility to developers who wanted to increase building densities on land in the county, without annexing into the city. They did that by swapping amenities with the developers in exchange for an extension of city sewer lines from the treatment plant, which was completed in 2000.
Harry Rinker was granted such an extension in 2005 to his 160-acre property where he plans to build 72 homes and a nine-hole golf course. Last week Rinker was denied a five-year extension of the agreement he struck with the city until after next week's meeting.
"The only reason Rinker's project is on the table right now is because his deadline for the sewer extension expires next month," said Hellen, who will argue at the meeting for more lenient standards than the EPA handed down in 2002.
"It could take months to years to resolve this," he said.
In 2002 Hailey was allowed to discharge no more than 18 pounds of "suspended solids" each day of treated effluent into the Big Wood. The city challenged that limit in 2006, calling for an allowable 44 pounds per day, a standard that was much easier, and much less expensive, to meet. So far, the EPA has not told the city which standards it will have to meet, and is currently withholding a renewed discharge permit for the city.
"The EPA has other areas with far more population than ours. It is my understanding that we are not very high on their list," Hellen said.
Following the recent completion of a wastewater master plan, Hellen found that the city may have over-allocated its sewer services to developers. That is why Rinker will have to wait.
Hellen said that sewer treatment is assured for recently annexed Old Cutter's subdivision and for in-fill development within the city, even under the stricter EPA standards.
"If you build in the city we are going to serve you," he said.
One year ago the city agreed to extend sewer services to the proposed 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," Hellen said. "We could have been more cautious."
City Attorney Ned Williamson said the city is contractually obligated to honor the agreement with Spring Canyon Ranch, which has about five years to hook up to city services. He also said there is a provision requiring homeowners there to pay for additional costs associated with regulatory changes at the EPA.
Those costs could amount to as much as $12 million dollars for increasing the capacity and filtering capabilities of Hailey's wastewater treatment facility, depending on the EPA's decision.
