Eagle residents object to plan to send treated wastewater through irrigation canals

There wasn’t an empty seat in the house at the Eagle City Council meeting on April 14.

A plan by the Eagle Sewer District to send highly treated wastewater into a local irrigation canal drew sharp questions from residents worried about long-term health, environmental and property impacts.

Eagle Sewer District General Manager Neil Jenkins outlined the district’s Class A recycled water reuse program and a 25-year agreement with the Farmers Union Ditch Company to deliver treated effluent into the canal system beginning in 2027. It comes with a $20 million price tag for the district, and covers upgrades including 5-micron filters, 2-micron filters and an ultraviolet disinfection system to kill viruses.

The district treats about 2.8 million gallons — roughly five Olympic swimming pools — of wastewater a day, according to Jenkins. It sends most of it to the city of Boise for additional treatment and discharge into the Boise River. Along with the filtration upgrades, the reuse project would build a five‑and‑a‑half‑mile enclosed pipeline to deliver Class A recycled water to the Farmers Union canal. During his presentaion, Jenkins reasoned that the increasing water scarcity in the region means reuse is a way to stretch limited water supplies while supporting irrigation when canal or river supplies are low.

“This is not a new concept,” Jenkins told the council, noting water reuse has occurred around the Treasure Valley since the 1960s. He said the system is designed so that only water meeting Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Class A standards would be released from the district’s facility.

A question was raised over what it would take to be able to treat the water to the point where it could simply be routed directly into the Boise River. Jenkins acknowledged the technology is there, but the cost would be in the ballpark of $100 million, or five times the cost of the current plan.

The district expects to receive a draft reuse permit from DEQ later this year and a final permit in spring 2027, when land application and delivery to an irrigation partner could begin. Class A recycled water, he said, can lawfully be used to irrigate parks, schoolyards and residential landscapes, even when people are present. It can also be used to support livestock in accordance with DEQ guidlines, Jenkins said, but is not safe for drinking.

While no one disputed the need to plan for water scarcity, many residents said the plan shifts risk onto canal users and well owners.

Several speakers raised alarms about “forever chemicals” along with pharmaceuticals, microplastics and nitrates that are not fully removed by standard wastewater treatment and may not be routinely tested for. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a category of manmade “forever chemicals” used since the 1940s to make products heat-, water-, and grease-resistant, were of particular concern for residents.

“I don’t want the forever chemicals on our land,” said Gina Mulhern, who lives in Star and irrigates pasture for cattle. Others questioned what would happen to livestock, home gardens and orchards irrigated with canal water. Residents said they feared contaminated crops and animal products could ultimately reach local markets.

Landowners along the Farmers Union system argued they had not been adequately notified or consulted before the district and ditch company signed their agreement in October 2024.

“My water right dates back to 1864,” said Kathy Sullivan, a Capital View Irrigation District shareholder whose water is conveyed by Farmers Union. “For over a century that Boise River water has been conveyed through the canal. What is being proposed now changes that.”

Sullivan and others said wastewater in the canal will inevitably seep into the ground and spill into Dry Creek, a Boise River tributary, potentially triggering federal clean water permitting requirements.

Eagle resident Nancy Shegeres told the council that, like thousands of other Eagle residents, her family relies on groundwater from a private well for drinking water, gardening and caring for her animals. “What flows through these canals, does not stay in the canal,” Shegeres said. “It seeps into the soil, becomes the groundwater we depend on earlier. (Jenkins) said several times the Class A water is not drinkable. However, for those of us with domestic wells, we are ultimately drinking that water. ”

Several shareholders said a large majority of Farmers Union users who attended a recent company meeting opposed the agreement and that a newly seated board has asked to exit the contract. According to residents, Eagle Sewer District has so far declined to release Farmers Union without payment for upgrades already underway.

Jenkins told council members no one is forced to remain in an agreement and that the contract includes a written termination process. He reiterated that Eagle Sewer District — not Farmers Union — would be responsible for meeting water quality standards and conducting monitoring required by DEQ.

Mayor Brad Pike repeatedly noted the council has no direct jurisdiction over the independent sewer district or irrigation company, though the city itself is a Farmers Union shareholder. When Eagle resident Sophia Fleming took the podium, she asked the council to consider a moratorium on the plan until a full impact assessment can be done.

“Our land is in city limits, and you guys do have the jurisdiction to stop chemicals being put in our ground,” Fleming said. The mother and grandmother who has lived in Eagle for 25 years calls the wastewater situation a “multigenerational issue” and asked council to consider what is more expensive — ”cleaning the water before it hits the river, or cleaning all of Eagle land to get forever chemicals out of the dirt.”

Pike said he would ask legal counsel what, if any, role the city could play.