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

PHOTO: The oxidation ditches at the Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant use hard-working aerobic bacteria to convert ammonia into inorganic nitrate and nitrite. But the state of Colorado and the EPA are not entirely satisfied with the end product…

Read Part One

Once, when I was working at the bakery, I overheard a humorously resigned conversation between two customers.

"There's a better world," a man said. "But it's more expensive."

— from ‘Trust’, by Hernan Diaz, Riverhead Books, 2022

Previously in this editorial series, I’ve mentioned a 6-page letter sent from the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) last month, asking for an 18-month extension to allow the Town of Pagosa Springs’ sanitation district — Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) — to collaborate with PAWSD in researching a more affordable solution to a projected $50 million wastewater problem.

Possibly, a collaborative solution that would serve the Pagosa Springs community, inside and outside the Town boundaries.

We also mentioned that the Town government, in 2011, abandoned a series of grants and loans that would have funded a state-of-the-state treatment facility south of Yamaguchi Park, and decided instead to build a 7-mile-long pipeline to pumps the Town's sewage uphill to the Vista Treatment Plant.

The letter sent to CDPHE last month summarized a somewhat dire situation created by the Town's decision to pump its sewage uphill, and by a series of financially disastrous pump failures:

These ongoing failures have drained the PSSGID's available reserves, and the enterprise fund, which has an approximately $1 million annual budget, is close to decimation. Despite annually raising all sewer collection monthly rates and Capital Investment Fees (tap fees), expenses for this small rural system continue to outpace revenues. All available fund reserves have gone to address the continuous issues with this original pumping conveyance project. Without the assistance of state grants to complete some of these additional repairs and replacements, the PSSGID would not be able to operate. All other capital projects slated for completion within the district, such as expanding lift stations, replacing aging collection lines, and buying maintenance equipment have been delayed indefinitely. In the short seven-year time span of this system, it has caused expensive and seemingly a never-ending series of emergencies…

The Town currently pays a ‘bulk-discount’ price to PAWSD for treating its sewage at the Vista treatment plant, but pays through the nose in terms of heartache, trying to keep the pumping system functioning. And the cost of electricity to run the pumps is not exactly cheap.

In fact, the decision to build a 7-mile pipeline did not pan out very well, financially, for the Town residents. (That includes myself, as a downtown resident.)

Town homeowners are now paying $53.50 per month for sewer service. That's $642 per year.

PAWSD customers, meanwhile, pay only $32.80 for sewer service. About $394 per year.

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

PAWSD is moving ahead with engineering and planning for a (potentially $15 million?) upgrade to the Vista Treatment Plant, but pending water quality regulations coming from CDPHE could increase the total cost of making the Vista Treatment Plant compliant to perhaps $50 million.

What the monthly cost would be, if these upgrades actually take place, we currently have no idea.

One issue facing the Town is that, while PAWSD can spread the cost of upgrades among about 3,500 connections, PSSGID serves only about 800 homes, so any cost increases are spread among a smaller number of properties. This fact may help explain why Town customers are now paying a noticeably higher monthly fee than PAWSD customers.

As mentioned previously in this editorial series, the PSSGID Board (which is the Town Council) agreed at the May 18 meeting to hire Carbondale, Colorado-based Roaring Fork Engineering to conduct a study that would help advise the Board on possible way to address the various problems — financial and operational — facing PSSGID in the near future.

Some of these same financial and operational issues are also near and dear to the hearts of the PAWSD Board… but at this point, the Town has chosen to look at things, initially, from the Town's perspective.

Theoretically, an engineering firm could have been hired jointly by PSSGID and PAWSD, as was recommended by certain PAWSD Board members last summer… but things did not proceed in that direction. Yet. So PAWSD has contracted separately with a different engineering firm, to study the problems in a creative fashion.

Here's Mayor Shari Pierce at the May 18 meeting, addressing the question of setting aside 15 acres south of the current Yamaguchi Park for PSSGID needs, or joint PSSGID/PAWSD needs:

"I would say, a couple of the options that we have are, if we build our own [sewer treatment] plant — which might not take as much space — and another would be that we join with PAWSD and build a bigger plant. Once we get this [Roaring Fork] study, then we will have to decide which direction we’re going to go… and that will also be influenced by PAWSD and what their engineers come up with and us working with them. So I don't think we’re going to have an answer soon, what we’re going to do. So I fully support putting [park development at ‘South Yamaguchi’] on hold, until we have a little bit more understand of where we’re going."

PSSGID Board member Mat deGraaf wondered it Roaring Fork would be looking at future rates, under the three main options, which are:

1. Town keeping the uphill pipeline indefinitely, and paying their share of any required Vista plant upgrades.

2. Town abandoning the pipeline and PAWSD services, and building its own treatment plant at Yamaguchi South.

3. Town and PAWSD coming up with a joint solution.

Town Public Works Director Karl Johnson thought a rate study would be appropriate after the Town decides which direction to go.

So I have a simple question for Mr. Johnson and the PSSGID Board. Wouldn't it be beneficial to find out what my monthly rates might be under those three scenarios?

Because I do have concerns. As a Town resident.

I don't really care who has the job of treating my wastewater… but I do care how much I have to pay.

I bet my neighbors do, as well.

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.