STAR, Idaho — Eagle Sewer District's plan to eventually send Class A treated wastewater into the Farmers' Union Canal for irrigation use is sparking pushback from neighbors well beyond Eagle's city limits.
Idaho News 6 has been following the District's plan since last year.
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In October 2024, Eagle Sewer District signed a 25-year agreement with Farmers' Union Ditch Company to eventually send Class A treated wastewater into the canal system for irrigation use. Eagle Sewer District says the water would have to meet Idaho Department of Environmental Quality standards for Class A reclaimed water before entering the canal system. The district says the project is designed to keep water local, support drought resilience, reduce reliance on Boise treatment infrastructure, and help address long-term water demand as the Treasure Valley grows. The project would not begin delivering treated wastewater into the canal until 2029, and the district says reused water would eventually make up a maximum of about 7 percent of total canal flow.
Eagle Sewer District says reclaimed-water irrigation systems already exist across parts of the Treasure Valley, including in Avimor, Hidden Springs, Meridian, Caldwell, and Nampa. The district says the treatment process includes filtration, ultraviolet disinfection, and continuous testing to verify compliance. On PFAS, the district acknowledges the contaminants are not currently regulated in Idaho wastewater permits, but says Eagle's service area has historically had little heavy industry. The district plans to monitor future regulations, and studies have shown very low reuse exposure risk. The district also says treating water to river-discharge nutrient standards — the alternative — could cost significantly more due to nitrogen and phosphorus removal and potential future cooling requirements.
Eagle Sewer District says its public outreach on this project began in 2023, with surveys, open houses, and presentations, and that patrons overwhelmingly supported irrigation reuse in district surveys.
But the canal system serves properties, pastures, and families well beyond Eagle — and Star neighbors say they were not part of the conversation when the agreement was made.
While Eagle Sewer District says the Class A treatment process is heavily regulated for public-health safety, many neighbors from Star and Eagle on Wednesday night said they remain concerned about long-term exposure to contaminants of emerging concern, including PFAS and pharmaceuticals, which are part of an evolving area of environmental regulation nationwide.
WATCH: Star neighbors push back on Eagle Sewer District's treated wastewater plan
Gina Mulhern has lived in Star for nearly 8 years. Her family raises cattle and high-performance horses on land irrigated by the Farmers' Union Canal. She said the reaction in her household was immediate when they learned about the agreement.
"When we heard about what was happening, the agreement that Eagle Sewer District and Farmers Union Canal struck, we were immediately very upset," Mulhern said.
She said her family's opposition is not about doubting the technical classification of the water — it is about what she believes will end up in her soil.
"We are not going to have our animals eating from pasture that's irrigated with treated sewage. I don't care how clean they say it is, and I understand they say Class A is OK. It's not OK with me because there are a lot of contaminants that are not in my soil now that are going to be in my soil, and that's not good. We don't even want our high-performance horses on it," Mulhern said.
Mulhern said she also wants Eagle to understand that Star handles its own wastewater differently — treating effluent to the standard required to enter the Boise River.
"When we learned that Eagle was doing something different, they decided that instead of treating it to the point where it could go in the river, they were going to treat it to the point where they can share it with all the families in Eagle, or many of them, and many of the families in Star. None of us were asked about this. We were not properly informed. We are not giving our consent," Mulhern said.
She said the goal of Wednesday night's meeting — held at Star Fire Station — was to spread awareness, because most people in the affected area still do not know this is happening.
"They seem to be ignoring us, and there's a lot of us, and there's going to be more and more," Mulhern said.
Erin Spear has lived in Star since 2019. She is not a shareholder in the Farmers' Union Canal, but her sister is — and her sister raises the family's beef cattle on property irrigated by the canal. Spear said that means she will personally be eating what goes into that water.
Spear said she believes most Eagle residents do not know that the city does not have its own wastewater treatment facility and has historically sent its wastewater to Boise, which has now stopped accepting it.
She said Star residents have already paid taxes to build a proper treatment facility that allows the city to discharge water into the Boise River system, and she finds it deeply unfair that those investments are now being undermined by a neighboring city's infrastructure gap.
"As a taxpayer, I am quite upset our taxes go up and up every year. I'm paying them and what am I paying them for if I'm just gonna get poop water anyways," Spear said.
"I do hope that this agreement is ended, and I really hope that the city of Eagle has a plan to better improve their government infrastructure," Spear said.
She said she understands the difficulty of the situation for all parties involved, but believes there's a better way.
"I understand that we're all just humans trying to do the very best we can. I just would urge us to make the right choice, the one that's going to help us all the way down the road, not just the easy choice and the cheap choice," Spear said.
During the meeting, neighbors discussed PFAS, pharmaceuticals, groundwater recharge, and long-term impacts to soil and crops. Meeting organizers summed up the community's ask simply: get city leaders to build better treatment plants and not settle for one the community does not want.
Neighbors said they hope city leaders in both Eagle and Star will pay attention to the growing frustration — and that their concerns will be brought to state leaders.
