Build for One City or Two: Driggs Votes

DRIGGS — The Driggs City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday to vote on whether to rebuild the city's wastewater plant for one city or two. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rescinded approval of the Driggs-only design eleven days ago.

The rescission and the two routes back

DEQ approved Driggs's Preliminary Engineering Report and 60% design on May 15. Seven days later, the agency rescinded that approval in a letter signed by Senior Water Quality Engineer Tyler Ayers. The letter cited the 20-year capacity rule at IDAPA 58.01.16.411.03.c.ii.2 and what it called the "unclear" legal status of the Inter-City Agreement between Driggs and Victor, "including whether Driggs is obligated to continue to provide service throughout the remainder of the agreement."

DEQ told Driggs to either "revise the PER to account for the combined flows" or produce legal documentation that Driggs will no longer have to serve Victor when the new plant comes online.

Those two routes are Tuesday's vote. Public Works Director Jay Mazalewski's staff report frames Option 1 as the Driggs-only plant, available only if Victor produces legal documentation that it will be physically disconnected by February 2030 "regardless of if they have a plant online or not." Option 2 is the larger plant designed to accommodate both cities' flows over the next 20 years, with debt service passed through to Victor under Section 3(A) of the Inter-City Agreement.

The arithmetic of Option 1

A May 28 capacity memo from Forsgren project manager Dave Noel told Mayor August Christensen the upgraded Driggs-only plant would run at 97 to 98 percent of capacity at its February 2030 startup if Victor stays connected, violating its NPDES limits for biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and ammonia. If Victor disconnects by 2031, the same plant runs at 55 to 56 percent.

"The alternative is returning to the regional design concept where the use of the existing system is optimized and expanded for additional capacity sufficient for all users," Noel wrote.

Option 1 also depends on documentation DEQ asked Victor to produce. Victor lost its purchase contract for the Evans wastewater plant site on April 30 and has not publicly named a replacement parcel.

What the Inter-City Agreement says

The 2011 Inter-City Agreement for Wastewater Treatment Services runs through September 30, 2031. Under Section 13, Victor holds two five-year extension options at its own discretion that could carry the relationship through 2041.

Section 3 governs cost-sharing when capital improvements are triggered by a "government mandate," a description that fits the rebuild ordered by Driggs's 2025 federal consent decree. Either way Victor pays its proportionate share: under 3(A)(i) by contributing to capital costs upfront on a flow-based formula, or under 3(A)(ii) by letting Driggs pass through Victor's share of the debt service. Sam Angell of Hall Angell & Associates, outside counsel for Driggs, invoked the second mechanism in a May 27 letter to Victor's counsel. If Driggs reverts to the big plant, the letter states, Driggs "will pass through to Victor" its "proportionate share of 'the debt service of such costs.'"

An invitation, while the lawsuits continue

The same Hall Angell letter "strongly encouraged" Victor representatives to attend Tuesday's meeting and update the council on Victor's wastewater project timeline and response to the DEQ directives. The Driggs staff report repeats the invitation under the heading "Victor Input/Update." Victor's city council has scheduled a special meeting for 1 p.m. Tuesday to go into executive session.

Victor's breach-of-contract suit against Driggs, City of Victor v. City of Driggs (CV41-26-0062), is still pending. The court granted a change-of-venue motion May 29, moving the case from Teton to Jefferson County. No new hearing date is set.

Victor's separate borrowing-authority case, CV41-26-0046, which would let the city pledge revenues to finance its own plant, has a status conference at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday before Judge Steven Boyce, hours before the Driggs council meets.

Driggs's condition for restarting mediation has been that Victor first drop its claims. The Hall Angell letter did not lift it.

On the same agenda: the operator contract

The council also votes Tuesday on Driggs's operator contract with Mountain West Waterworks LLC of Sugar City. The staff report says Mountain West has run Driggs's wastewater system under contract for three years. The new one-year term costs $5,180 a month, budgeted in both the current and proposed fiscal years.

The contract is dated April 1, 2026. It puts any disputes in Madison County, where Mountain West is based, and requires the operator's review or consultation on any system change, maintenance, or upgrade before the city acts.

What to watch

Tuesday's vote is the first single-vote chance in fourteen months to settle whether Driggs's wastewater plant is built for one city or two. A vote against does not close the question; it pushes it into DEQ, the federal consent decree, and the pending court cases. Driggs's plant must be operational by December 15, 2028, under the 2025 consent decree; Driggs's April 30 force majeure request asks EPA Region 10 to push that to February 2030.

What to watch: The Driggs City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Driggs City Hall, 60 S. Main Street. Update: The council tabled the June 2 decision, and will now vote Tuesday June 16

Build for One City or Two: Driggs Council to Decide