JACKSON, Wyo. – In a summer where a pair of failing man-made lakes have soaked up most of the aquatic headlines, Protect Our Water Jackson Hole (POWJH) wants to celebrate some positive news for local water quality.
If the crisis of shrinking Colorado River reservoirs is the result of poor planning at the state level, and a crisis at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the result of poor planning at the federal level, the community can be grateful that the municipal government is practicing proactive planning for water quality.
In late July, the Jackson Town Council voted to approve significant protections for buffers along our waterways. The amendment to the town’s Land Development Regulations prohibit snow storage, dumpster storage and the application of fertilizer alongside Flat and Cache creeks. It also added Spring Creek to waterways eligible for a 50-foot streamside buffer and increased the development setbacks beside wetlands from 30 to 50 feet.
“These are major water quality wins,” said POWJH Advocacy Director Jen Evans, who testified in favor of the protections. “Buffer zones along wetlands and waterways are an important tool to preserve water quality and aquatic ecosystem health, and just as important is keeping those buffer zones clean.”
Vegetated buffer zones help keep waterways cool by providing shade, particularly important for native trout species. They also keep trash and other pollutants out, including sand and chemicals scraped from roadways into snowbanks. Fertilizer can itself be harmful to aquatic life as it increases the growth of algae, depriving aquatic animals of dissolved oxygen.
The key to the new regulations, said Evans, will be enforcement. “It’s great that we have these protections on the books, but they won’t mean much if no one complies with them.”
Then in August, in a major win in the effort to swap septic systems for sewer lines, the council voted to grant pre-approval for certain neighborhoods outside of town limits to connect to the town’s wastewater treatment plant. Removing any barrier to replacing septic systems, which don’t function properly in our valley, is a big win, said Phil Powers, POWJH executive director.
“Cold temperatures, poor soil conditions, a shallow water table, and intermittent use all diminish septic performance,” said Powers, noting that many of the homes in the valley that rely on septic systems aren’t occupied year-round. “That all means human waste isn’t being sufficiently treated. It flows into the groundwater where all of our wells reside.”
In addition, said Powers, community has no requirement for routine septic system maintenance or inspections, so it’s likely that some systems may be major polluters.
“At POWJH, our goal is to reduce the number of septics in Jackson Hole,” said Powers. “The council’s action makes that easier by reducing red tape for homeowners.”
The priority areas pre-approved by the council are identified as such in the 2024 Water Quality Management Plan. They are neighborhoods outside of the current Town of Jackson sewer service area that present the greatest risk of contaminating the groundwater—areas like the Hi Country Subdivision adjacent to Spring Creek and Skyline Ranch adjacent to the Snake River.
“We’re thankful that the Town Council and staff recognize the threat that septic systems pose to our aquifer and environment,” said Powers. The next priority, he said, is getting these areas actually connected to the sewer system. That process will require a significant commitment from a different local government — Teton County, which governs each of the priority areas.
“Our community has grown so much that the idea that one might need to lay sewer lines outside a town’s boundary was unanticipated,” said Powers. “Now, however, Teton County has numerous, dense subdivisions where septic tanks release waste beside their neighbors well.”
There are some 3,000 septic systems in our valley, and the County is permitting as many as a hundred new ones each year because there aren’t sewer lines serving the new development. The exact figure of existing septic systems isn’t known because of gaps in record keeping, though one of POWJH’s current projects is mapping those septics by cross – referencing planning archives.
One thing is for sure: some of those systems are far below par, said Powers. “The rumor that some old septic tanks in this County are just buried vehicles is substantiated by more than one contractor here in Jackson Hole.”
