Afton council suspends septic waste from outside town after sewer lagoon incident

Mayor Jeff Jensen and the Afton Town Council voted unanimously June 17 to adopt RESOLUTION NO. 2025-04, suspending septic waste coming from outside the Afton municipal boundaries, except for porta-potty waste.

The action followed a report from Utility Director Josh Peavler about a sewer lagoon incident on a hay field owned jointly by Lincoln County and the Town of Afton. Peavler told the council that the incident prompted discussion of infrastructure challenges, maintenance and cleaning, manhole upkeep, potential infrastructure enhancements, county responsibilities, septic dumping, and overall capacity concerns.

Utility Director Josh Peavler had requested an ordinance to ensure access to fire hydrants and raised the sewer-lagoon concerns during his report. The council’s discussion led to consensus to draft and approve a resolution to halt septic waste accepted from locations outside the town limits. Mayor Jeff Jensen presented the resolution; Council Member Dirk Hillyard moved to adopt it and Council Member Michael Butler seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

The resolution text, as presented to the council, explicitly exempts porta-potty waste. The council did not specify an effective date in the meeting record and gave no additional procedural instructions for enforcement or county coordination during the public meeting.

Next steps identified in the discussion included staff follow-up on enforcement mechanisms, clarification of county versus town responsibility for the hay field and lagoon, and potential infrastructure improvements to prevent future overflows or unauthorized dumping. The council did not record a timetable or funding source for those follow-up tasks during the meeting.