The lawsuit, filed Friday, Feb. 14, in 4th District Court, alleges strong odors from the service district’s wastewater treatment ponds cause health problems and hurt nearby property values. And it says the district has not done enough to address locals’ concerns.
Grabau told KPCW Tuesday morning, Feb. 18, the district has already come a long way toward combatting the odor problem. He said while he doesn’t know all the details of the lawsuit, he’s confident the district is heading in the right direction.
“In general, the Heber Valley [Special] Service District is, through their new director, making a lot of really great strides,” he said. “I think the improvement was evident this last summer, and I think they continue to make those improvements.”
He also reiterated the service district wants to address locals’ concerns about wastewater management.
“Ultimately, that’s what we’re hoping that this process will be able to identify – what can be done, what should be done and what’s the best way forward,” he said.
Last month, Midway mayor and HVSSD board member Celeste Johnson met with the Wasatch County Council to give an update on facility operations.
She shared satellite images of the area around the treatment ponds when they were constructed in the 1980s versus the surroundings now.
“This plant was built at the right time, in the right place,” Johnson said. “When it was purchased and when it was put into action in the early 80s, you can see there’s not even any homes around it. The picture on the right side just lets you see what’s happened.”
She said as the Heber Valley’s population ballooned, planners assumed new developments could use the facility near Midway for wastewater treatment.
“As the growth has occurred, there really was never any kind of accountability for what was coming, being sent to the plant,” she said. “As neighborhoods were built and municipalities approved projects, it was just assumed that the sewer can come here.”
One improvement the district made a couple of years ago was purchasing a hay farm west of the Heber Valley Airport, which helped expand the amount of wastewater the plant could process. Some treated wastewater is now sent to that farm, where it eventually makes its way back to the aquifer.
Still, there’s only so much more capacity the facility can handle. The service district has plans to upgrade the facility in a few years.
Johnson said the service district also plans to dredge the treatment ponds and update the aeration system, two fixes she said will go a long way toward mitigating odors.
And with the Heber Valley only continuing to grow, she told the county council the service district is carefully planning its future capacity.
“We’re going to make a recommendation on what the service area generally should be, but then we want to create very specific numbers that would be assigned to county, Charleston, Midway, Heber, in terms of how many [equivalent residential units] – if any – they could still put into the plant,” she said. “This plant just can’t get any bigger.”
Equivalent residential units are essentially a way for the county to measure how many people live in a development.
Johnson said the district will also continue to study new technologies to potentially adopt in the future.
Grabau said depending on the results of the district's analysis, new developments’ sewer connections could be routed to other service districts, or the county may need additional wastewater facilities.
Heidi Franco, the chair of the Heber Valley Special Service District board, told KPCW Tuesday that service district leaders are reviewing the lawsuit but said she couldn’t comment beyond that.
