Friday, January 16, 2009

Hailey was warned on sewer-line extension

With Peregrine Ranch on hold, city may reconsider extension into Croy Canyon


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

Hailey Public Works Director Tom Hellen warned city officials last year to "exercise caution" in agreeing to extend city sewer lines two miles into Croy Canyon. Photo by David N. Seelig

It looks like Hailey may have put the cart before the horse when it agreed to extend city sewer services into Croy Canyon last winter.

The agreement was made despite a memo, written in late 2007, from Public Works Director Tom Hellen warning against the decision.

The memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Idaho Mountain Express, warned the council to "exercise caution" on a "complicated issue with a number of unknowns."

Hellen recently completed a wastewater master plan for the city that indicates a costly upgrade to the city's wastewater treatment facility may be in order. The council's decision to move ahead with the Croy Canyon extension agreement may cost the city or developers as much as $12 million.

The upgrade cost will depend on the outcome of negotiations between the city and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over allowable wastewater discharge limits into the Big Wood River.

The wastewater master plan was incomplete in December 2007, when the council signed off on an agreement to extend sewer services two miles into Croy Canyon to developer Mark Meyers' proposed 117- home Spring Canyon Ranch development.

Meyers needed the city sewer line to get increased building densities on his property in Democrat Gulch, and joined forces with the Croy Canyon Ranch Foundation, which needed a place to build a new eldercare facility to replace Blaine Manor on Main Street in Hailey.

Both developments would be made possible by the sewer line extension.

"At the time, the council deemed that it was in the best interest of the public that Croy Canyon Ranch be able to proceed," Mayor Rick Davis said. "If not for the eldercare facility going out there, I don't think the sewer line extension would have happened,"

Hailey's EPA permit, which allowed the discharge of 94 pounds per day of treated waste into the Big Wood River, expired in 2006. However, in 2002, the agency limited Hailey's discharge to only 18 pounds per day. Hailey responded in 2003 with a request to discharge up to 44 pounds per day. That request has not yet been addressed by the EPA.

Hellen said a decision could take "months to years" to complete, due to a backlog of permit applications.

"If the EPA comes down with the worst-case scenario, the council would have to take another look at the agreement with Spring Canyon," Davis said.

Alone among council members to oppose the sewer line extension last year was Fritz Haemmerle, who joined the council a few weeks before the extension was granted.

Haemmerle said this week that he remains fundamentally opposed to the selling of excess treatment capacity to developers outside the city limits.

"I don't think we should sell it, because our city taxpayers paid for it," he said.




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