Hoback RV Park residents making due | Environmental

“I am learning new ways of doing things,” Talisman said Thursday. “When I used to wash the dishes I would just turn the faucet on and let the water run. Now I get a tiny dab of soap and I wash the dishes and I get them all in a little pile and I rinse them all off.”

Macy’s Services returned to Talisman’s trailer on Tuesday to refill it, Macy’s owner Dwight Reppa said.

“She called us and said over the weekend she ran out of water,” Reppa said.

They wonder if there’s a leak under Talisman’s trailer. Until they figure it out they’ll refill it every time it runs out and continue that until she moves in the spring.

It’s not ideal. Talisman said it costs her $125 every time they refill her tank, but the 76-year-old is trying to make the most of it.

“It’s a very different way of life,” she said. “I used to joke around with my friends and say I am one step up from camping. Well now I am one step closer.”

Talisman and her neighbors at the Hoback RV Park are preparing to leave the property after their landlords notified them in November that a new septic system being installed on the property wouldn’t be able to accommodate them.

The notice led to outcry and a public fight for the residents to at least be able to stay until spring, especially amid a global pandemic. The original eviction date was Dec. 31, 2020.

Negotiations with landlord Crowley Capital allowed for the residents to stay as long as they disconnected from the property’s failing septic system, something they’ve been cited for by county and state officials.

To avoid pricey septic and water servicing costs between now and May, some residents have converted their trailers to use composting toilets.

As a backup, in case something freezes or stops working, Crowley Capital had Macy’s Services deliver two portable toilets.

“We are servicing those weekly,” Reppa said.

According to an email obtained by the News&Guide, Crowley Capital asked the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality on Dec. 22 that “they be allowed to continue using portions of the existing septic system until Jan. 14, 2021 in order to provide residents with more time to convert their sites, or to make other arrangements.”

According to the email, written by Kevin Frederick, an administrator of the DEQ’s water quality division, the agency granted that request.

“We’re hopeful that doing so will assist both the landowner and residents,” Frederick wrote. “We will continue to work with the landowner, as well as Teton County, to the extent that we can to find solutions that protect human health, safety, and the…