All new construction in the booming south valley.

"We plan to oppose, appeal and sue as far as we can," pledges Jeff Salt, executive director of the nonprofit organization Great Salt Lakekeeper. "Our standard position is that we don't compromise on the environment. We're going to meet fire with fire, and, if the sewer district is unwilling to be reasonable and explore all the alternatives thoroughly, then as citizens we have no other choice but to be as belligerent as they are - to file appeals and go to court."

And if the courts side with Salt and hold up the Riverton plant?

"That would mean an almost immediate moratorium on all new connections," warns Craig White, general manager of the South Valley Sewer District.

Such a move would devastate some south Salt Lake County cities, according to Riverton Mayor Bill Applegarth.

"We use development fees in our general budget, and we'd have to cut back some of the recreation programs and niceties we do," he says. "But you get to some cities, and they won't be able to fund their city government."

The sewer district is eager to build the wastewater plant and bring it online in 2010 to meet the surging demand. Board members say their share of a current West Jordan facility has exceeded capacity and that the district meets its demands only through an agreement with two other providers.

Consulting engineer Ken Spier expects the Riverton project to win speedy approval from regulators. Salt Lake County already has signed off. And Walt Baker, director of the state Division of Water Quality, predicts the plant will win quick nods from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, the Governor's Office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Not so fast, says Salt, who has numerous gripes about the proposed site near 13500 South on the west side of the Jordan River.

He says the facility would harm wetlands, a community parkway project and wildlife. Salt also worries that the plant would be in a flood plain, jeopardizing the health and safety of those downstream.

"An industrial plant in the river corridor just doesn't make sense," Salt says, adding that the facility should not be built near homes that already are connected to a West Jordan plant.

"It seems redundant," Salt says. "Why not build closer to the new development where the current growth and future demands will be?"

But, Salt adds, the sewer district has "never been very cooperative in looking at alternatives."

Wrong, White counters.

The board already has addressed Salt's concerns, he says, noting that the county-approved document covers the flood-plain argument and includes an alternative-sites report. White says the study examined locations along the Jordan River corridor - from 12600 South north to the West Jordan treatment plant at 7300 South - as well as an area west of South Jordan's burgeoning Daybreak community.

"We did a cost analysis showing the pros and cons of why these other sites didn't work," White says. "We wanted at least 40 acres of buffer, proper access for vehicles and biosolid trucks and a place out of wetlands or with minimal disruption."

Salt's opposition is not the first challenge to the proposed Riverton plant. A grass-roots group settled a lawsuit earlier this year after the sewer district agreed to pursue a pricier cell-membrane technology that would leave a smaller footprint.

Salt blames hardball politics - including a bill in the Legislature that would have permitted the plant to move forward without a conditional-use permit - for pressuring the residents into a bad compromise.

"[The board] is trying to force this decision to build down our throats," Salt says.

John Homer, a leader of the grass-roots group, concedes the legislation played a part in the compromise. Homer says he would prefer no treatment plant at the site, but adds that the sewer board didn't strong-arm residents any more than they tried to strong-arm the board.

"They played their cards, we played ours," Homer says. "Had they been successful, it could have skirted the court issue. . . . They could have just gone right ahead and done whatever they wanted."

Even if the courts force a delay on the cell-membrane plant, Herriman Mayor Lynn Crane says a moratorium of all new construction should be off the table.

"That would have a very negative impact on our community and neighboring areas," he says, "and upon the economy of the entire Salt Lake Valley and entire Wasatch Front."

The sewer district averted that crisis once already. The board considered halting new sewer connections to its maxed-out share of the West Jordan facility. But suburban Sandy and Midvale agreed to lease some of their capacity - so long as there were no delays in the sewer district's project.

"If Sandy suburban were to pull out," White says, "we'd be dead in the water immediately."

sgehrke@sltrib.com