Preston City wastewater treatment plant needs to be upgraded and the mayor and city council are trying to figure out how to pay for it.
PRESTON – The Mayor and City Council of Preston are getting a jaw-dropping dose of reality as they face Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulations, inflation, supply chain issues and the price tag of replacing their antiquated wastewater treatment plant.
“We are in the fourth year of a seven-year deadline of what we thought was going to be a $30 million wastewater improvement project,” Preston Mayor Dan Keller said. “We sent out six to eight calls for bids and we had only two bids come back, one for near $60 million and another for $75 million.”
Currently, the total phosphate the city emits from their wastewater treatment plant exceeds DEQ requirements and the city was mandated by them to reduce that phosphate emissions. The plant was built some time ago and the city has experienced significant growth since it was built.
“The water going into Worm Creek is cleaner than the water in the creek and I haven’t found one dead fish,” he said. “These unfunded government mandates are hard for us to swallow.”
The aging sewer and water systems are in need of a major overhaul. A utility rate increase is inevitable.
“The people need to know the truth about this,” the mayor said. “We have been telling residents it is going to be a $34 million project and cost the residents $30 to $40 increase a month. Now we have to say our residents you are going to pay $111 a month for sewer and then with the water residents would be $150 a month for the next 40 years.”
He said for the $59 million it would cost for a new wastewater treatment plant they could pay for five high schools.
“This is just not right for a town our size. It’s a tough,” Keller said. “There are some people in town who are paying that much for their mortgage.”
Preston is currently on the lower tier in the state for utility costs.
“If we are forced to pay this much for the new wastewater system, we will not be able to do any future infrastructure projects,” he said. “It would be impossible to do anything else.”
“Our engineers have designed the treatment system that uses new technology and it has been approved by DEQ,” Keller added. “It has not been installed in a city our size before and we don’t even know if it is going to work.”
It is a federal mandate and the city must comply or risk fines.
“I’m not blaming anyone,” he said. “We did our due diligence in selecting the engineering firm and the contractors.”
Keller said he has spent a lot of time calling different agencies in Boise trying to get someone to work with Preston City.
The mayor and city council are mulling over their options while trying to find a solution to their high-priced, government-mandated wastewater treatment system without over-burdening the Preston City residents.