Council preapproves priority areas for sewer connections, hears calls for expanded groundwater monitoring

Public Works Director Johnny Ziem presented a wastewater treatment-plant capacity analysis tied to the Teton County Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP). Staff modeled a 20‑year buildout and reported the following approximate flows: town full buildout ~3.9 million gallons per day (gpd); adding WQMP priority areas raises the estimate to ~4.4M gpd; adding priority + proximate areas yields ~4.6M gpd. The town's current DEQ permit is 5.0M gpd. Ziem and staff noted DEQ expectations to act well before the permit maximum and described an 80–85% planning threshold for prompting expansion discussions.

Staff recommended preapproving priority areas so future connection requests could move more efficiently through the town's three-step process; council voted to direct staff to update Resolution 21‑28 to include priority-area language. During public comment, Jen Evans (advocacy director, POWJH) and Aaron Pruzan (Rendezvous River Sports; POWJH board chair) urged expanded groundwater monitoring at the treatment plant, citing prior monitoring (2008–2012) that showed ammonia exceedances and asking the town to collaborate with POWJH and the DEQ on a monitoring plan. POWJH offered to pay for wells to ensure monitoring results are in place before winter. County Water Resources Coordinator Chris Peltz noted alternative scenarios (some flow could go to the Aspen Pines plant) and supported preapproval as a planning step.

Councilors supported the staff recommendation while several said they wanted more time to scope monitoring and to consider costs for ongoing monitoring; council directed staff to present the updated resolution language at a future meeting and to continue working with DEQ and county partners.