End sought to sewage-plant fight
No conditional-use permit necessary under legislative bill
South Valley Sewer District general manager Craig White said a bill being drafted for the upcoming legislative session seeks to make treatment facilities — both water and waste water — permitted uses.
White declined to name the bill's sponsor Thursday, saying he was awaiting confirmation from the lawmaker.
Sewer-district officials have been working since March 2002 to get approval for a treatment plant in Riverton to keep up with growth in its service area — roughly the southern third of Salt Lake County.
The Riverton Board of Adjustments' decision in November 2005 to revoke the conditional-use permit for the plant has sparked a legal battle that's headed to the state Court of Appeals.
If the bill goes before the Legislature and passes, White said the sewer district's battle with Riverton residents over the conditional-use permit "would completely go out the window ... We wouldn't need a conditional-use permit," he said.
Riverton Mayor Bill Applegarth has organized three sit-downs over the past two weeks among city leaders, sewer district representatives and residents who have opposed the facility being built in the Jordan River bottoms at 13500 South.
At the last of those meetings, held Thursday, residents said they would support the treatment plant being built at the Riverton site if the sewer district builds a smaller, odor-free facility that uses membrane technology.
Such a facility could be built on about half of the 20 acres needed at build-out for the sewer district's proposed treatment plant.
In addition, sewage treated at the suggested facility would result in a higher quality of water that could be immediately discharged into secondary-water systems of surrounding communities.
"It's a very proven technology," White said.
The only hang-up is the cost, he said. The price tag for a sewage-treatment plant using membrane technology is about $130 million — $50 million more than the proposed conventional facility.
White said some of the sewer district board members have balked at the increased cost.
"It's really going to come down to a decision of the board about the use of public funds," he said. "Should we spend another $50 million of public funds just so we can have newer technology and a smaller footprint? That's the debate that's taking place."
White estimates that a plant using membrane technology would translate into an increase in service fees of about $8 per month to the 42,000 homes serviced by the district, as well as a $1,000 increase in impact fees per new connection.
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