Victor, Driggs Reopen Wastewater Talks

VICTOR — Victor and Driggs have reopened wastewater talks over the plant the two cities share, and Victor's new mayor, Sue Muncaster, is setting the pace. She has told Driggs that Victor wants to understand what the plant now costs and requires before taking up its draft partnership agreement.

The two cities share a treatment plant in Driggs under a 2011 agreement. Victor voted in March 2025 to leave that partnership and build its own plant, then sued Driggs in March 2026, claiming it had been overbilled. On July 8, the day the dismissal of that lawsuit was finalized, Driggs Mayor August Christensen emailed the council an invitation to a series of joint work sessions on the plant. Driggs had refused to negotiate until Victor dropped the suit. Acting Mayor Stacy Hulsing accepted the same afternoon.

Muncaster, whom the Victor council appointed mayor in July, met with Christensen in person on July 13. Two days later she wrote back. Victor is committed to exploring a long-term partnership, she said, and she shared Christensen's aim of moving "productively and efficiently." But she was "cautious about reviewing" Driggs' draft agreement with her council, she wrote, "to avoid negotiating as adversaries," until the city had "a clearer and more complete understanding of the system we are being asked to commit to." Much had changed, she added, "since Victor last evaluated it."

Muncaster proposed starting with an informational work session on the plant's condition, capacity, finances, and regulatory obligations. She offered two dates: a joint session July 29, or a Driggs presentation to the Victor council alone at its July 22 meeting. For the negotiations that follow, she asked that the cities meet in a neutral location "under mutually agreed-upon procedures."

The plant Victor would recommit to has run for years under a federal consent decree for chronic Clean Water Act violations, and a joint audit found Driggs had overcharged Victor on the shared loan, using a cost-allocation method the 2011 agreement does not authorize.

Both councils have wastewater on their agendas this week. Driggs meets July 21, where its council will consider which of the plant's budget items count as shared operating costs billed to Victor. Victor meets July 22, when the council is set to discuss Driggs' draft agreement and the proposed joint work sessions, and to hold a public hearing on an amendment to Victor's own wastewater facility plan, presented by the engineering firm Sunrise Engineering.

What to watch: the wastewater talks return to public view this week. Driggs takes up the operating-cost question July 21. The Victor council meets July 22 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 138 N. Main St., where it takes up Driggs' draft agreement and Muncaster's proposal to hold an informational session first.

Victor and Driggs Reopen Wastewater Talks, With Victor Setting the Pace

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