EDITORIAL: Opportunities to Work Together, on Problems… Part Three

Read Part One

Sitting in the audience at the May 18 meeting of the Town's Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) board meeting, a member of the public could perceive a willingness, among the PSSGID Board and staff, to collaborate with the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD)… or at least, think about collaborating.

Before that conversation took place, however, the PSSGID Board voted to hire the folks at Roaring Fork Engineering to evaluate the long-term viability of the Town's uphill-pumping wastewater pipeline, as compared to investing in a future treatment plant, possibly near the site of Pumping Station one, within the 26-acre Town-owned parcel just east of Pagosa Springs High School, now referred to as ‘Yamaguchi South’. Roaring Fork was chosen, in part, because they have not worked in Pagosa Springs previously and so — the Town hopes — they will approach the $50,000 study without an preconceived notions or biases.

Disclosure: Although I currently serve on the PAWSD Board of Directors, the opinions in this editorial are purely my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the PAWSD Board or staff.

A couple of years ago, the Town adopted a plan to convert the 26-acre Yamaguchi South parcel into a $15 million recreational park.

But back in the early 2000s, a previous Town Council had earmarked the parcel for a state-of-the-art sewer treatment plant. That plan was abandoned after PAWSD staff convinced the Council to build, instead, a 7-mile pipeline to the uptown Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Although the Archuleta County population is estimated at about 14,000 people, the Town of Pagosa Springs itself has a full-time population of about 1,900. Maybe 800 homes? In 2011, those homes were connected to three ‘sewer lagoons’ located on the 26 acres of riverfront property just south of Yamaguchi Park… and the lagoons were leaching certain chemicals — particularly, ammonia — into the San Juan River. The Town government was scrambling to finance a new state-of-the-art treatment plant for its gravity-fed system.

In the spring of 2011, it appeared that the Town had the financing in hand to build a new treatment facility. A site near the sewer lagoons was being prepared, and Jim Isgar had pulled some political strings to get us the necessary grants and loans.

One day, a ‘photo opportunity’ was scheduled at the proposed treatment plant site, where Jim Isgar, Colorado's State Director of USDA Rural Development, and former State Senator for District 6, added his signature to a three-foot-long piece of plastic pipe — as did Mayor Ross Aragon. (Mr. Isgar explained that the "Enormous Check" photo opportunity had been replaced, for water projects, with the "Big Piece of Plastic Pipe" photo opportunity.)

Joining Mr. Isgar and Mayor Aragon for a brief ceremony were a handful of others, including Phil Starks, PSSGID supervisor; Duane Dale, USDA Rural Development specialist; and Patrick O’Brien, lead engineer on the design of the Town's new ($6 million?) sewer treatment plant.

Everyone was smiling.

Also present at the brief ceremony were Town Council members Darrel Cotton and Shari Pierce, though they both declined to pose in the photos. Mr. Cotton had been the lone "No" vote in approving Town's acceptance of a $3.9 million USDA loan and grant package — money that was here, being officially celebrated.

$3.9 million from USDA would be combined with a $2 million loan from the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority and a $1.25 million grant from the Department of Local Affairs.

The exact cost of the new wastewater treatment plant had not yet been determined in the spring of 2011… and in fact, we would never learn an exact price, because this was right around the time that the project management staff from PAWSD began selling the Mayor and Town Council on a supposedly cheaper, and supposedly better, alternative: a 7-mile-long pipeline to pump the Town's sewage uphill to the Vista Treatment Plant.

Now — 12 years, and millions of dollars later — our two sanitation districts are looking at the possibility of building a new, state-of-the-art treatment plant at approximately the same location.

The price will be much higher than $6 million. Much higher.

Here is Town Manager Andrea Phillips on May 18, 2023, commenting on the possible future of Yamaguchi South and the $15 million park plan:

"Just so the Council is aware… unless we’re directed differently, we’re reserving 15 acres of the 26 acres… for a potential future wastewater treatment facility. So the development of the park has been put on hold, along with the river access and boater take-outs that the [independent San Juan Headwaters Water Enhancement Project] had planned. We’ve been talking to [the WEP] about some alternatives, in the meantime, but we are holding that property from any further development until directed otherwise. That means, of course, we’re still looking at the northern [11 acres] which is where the dog park, pickleball courts and things like that are located.

"But unless Council feels differently and wants to allow development of these other planned features down there, we’re not allowing anything to occur there."

Council member Mat deGraaf added some additional information.

"There's a lot of uncertainly about what PAWSD may have to do, and how the Town may want to — or can — help. I fully support that. It's going to take time to develop the park features that we already have, so I think we can set that park property aside for a few years, and see how things play out."

One thing we are waiting to see ‘play out’ is the letter to CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) asking for more time to put together a possible joint wastewater solution that includes both PSSGID and PAWSD.

You can download the 6-page letter here.

If we are considering a $50 million ‘band-aid’ for the older Vista Treatment Plant… maybe it would be smarter to, instead, build a totally new ‘state-of-the-art’ treatment plant that would also eliminate the need for the Town to spend thousands of dollars each month pumping sewage uphill?

Collaboratively? Working hand-in-hand?

Read Part Four, tomorrow…

Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can't seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.