MOYIE SPRINGS — The Moyie Springs City Council unanimously approved a repeal of the city’s sewer moratorium, allowing residents to install new sewer connections for the first time in about three years. The completion of the city’s sewer upgrade project has roughly doubled the system’s capacity. 

The moratorium, which was Ordinance 140 for Moyie Springs, was enacted on Jan. 4, 2023. It was repealed in its entirety on Dec. 3, 2025. 

John Nelson, Moyie Springs Public Works superintendent, said the moratorium was enacted after the city’s previous system reached maximum capacity. 

“It only had a capacity of about 100 connections,” Nelson said. “We hit that 100 connections just before the sewer project started, and we decided that we could not put any more on there until after it was complete. The new sewer facility is supposed to be good for about 200.” 

The total number of future connections is undetermined. Nelson said long-term shifts in the housing market have heavily influenced how often the city installs new water and sewer installations. 

“There's been a couple times I went two or three years without even putting a house connection in for water,” Nelson said. “So, it just depends a lot on what's going on in the housing market.” 

So far, Nelson said three sewer connections have been paid for, though the property owner has not yet requested installation. 

“When we decide to do it, it’ll take us about a day,” he said. “It’s pretty minor. It doesn’t take that long.” 

The sewer upgrade, a multi-million-dollar project, was launched after the city’s original system began to fail and could no longer be certified by the state of Idaho.