After two days and 20 hours of mediation between the city of McCall and the Payette Lakes Recreational Water & Sewer District, the two parties were unable to resolve their differences over ownership of the wastewater treatment plant that serves the McCall area.
The two sides met all day Monday and much of Tuesday at The Hunt Lodge in McCall before releasing a joint statement saying that they would continue to work together to resolve their differences. No details were released.
The sewer district board, the McCall City Council and respective staff members met in closed session with mediator D. Duff McKee, a retired Idaho district court judge from Boise. McKee charges $250 per hour plus expenses and his costs will be split evenly between the city and sewer district.
The mediation is the latest chapter in a dispute between the two sides that came to a head in August 2005, when the city filed a court action asking a judge to sort out the contract between the two parties.
The two parties are seeking a solution to who owns what at the wastewater treatment facility. The city contends that it owns two thirds of the treatment plant and all of the storage pond and J-Ditch irrigation pipeline. The sewer district believes its contract that states it owns one-third of the capacity at the plant, which includes treatment, collection and dispersal.
The two parties met with another mediator in November 2005 but nothing was resolved.
Last summer, Fourth District Judge George Carey suggested the current mediation when he ruled on a subsequent lawsuit by the district challenging the city's ability to issue sewer hookups.
That court challenge came after the city threatened in June to halt district hookups if the two parties did not meet in a public forum.
The two sides met in an open session last July, but the meeting was stopped as soon as it was called into order by the city, citing the district's recent court actions..
The district had also sued the city and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality over its sewer hookup allotment system in May.
That suit was recently settled, which changed the wording of the DEQ discharge permit to the city ensuring the city would not exceed its treatment capacity.
The city has 2,441 sewer customers, while the district has 1,070 sewer customers.
