San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) is a local district public health agency serving Archuleta and La Plata Counties, and governed by a seven-member local Board of Health, serving all residents of La Plata and Archuleta counties. For 72 years, SJBPH has improved the health and environment of the Southwest Colorado community. SJBPH believes in the fundamental right of each individual to attain his or her fullest potential of health…
— from the San Juan Basin Public Health’s 2021 budget document
Reporter Clayton Chaney, with the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, has been following the public health district controversy rather closely for the past three months, as Archuleta County’s Health District Investigative Committee (HDIC) has attempted to wrap its head around how suitably San Juan Basin Public Health serves the people of Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County — and if, perhaps, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners ought to consider an alternative public health agency.
I use the word ‘suitably’ because San Juan Basin Public Health definitely does serves the people of Archuleta County, and to all appearances, does so at an affordable cost. The essential question might be, how well does the arrangement ‘suit’ the desires of our elected County Commissioners.
As mentioned yesterday in Part One, Archuleta County is legally required to provide public health services within its boundaries. For the past 70 years or so, those necessary services — including testing, education, counseling, and enforcement around a range of public health concerns — have been provided by San Juan Basin Health Department, now known as San Juan Basin Public Health. The agency serves both Archuleta County and neighboring La Plata County.
From Mr. Chaney’s October 21 article in the SUN:
On Wednesday, October 13, members and staff from San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) met with Archuleta County’s Health District Investigative Committee (HDIC) for a work session to discuss some of the information that the HDIC requested from SJBPH. SJBPH Board of Health President Ann Bruzzese and Vice President Karin Daniels were in attendance on behalf of the health district, as well as Executive Director Liane Jollon.
HDIC Chair Mozhdeh Bruss explained that the committee has been reviewing documents related to the services provided by SJBPH and its budgets. She noted the committee did not have a set list of questions prepared, but some of the committee members were still grappling with some questions in regard to the information they received.
“We’re glad that we have this opportunity to learn alongside with you about services in our county,” Bruss said in regard to having representatives from SJBPH meet with them.
HDIC member Susan Kleckner began the discussion with a question about where people can go to [discover] what essential services are being provided in Archuleta County.
“It’s been difficult to get the information from your website,” she said. Kleckner mentioned that she went to the district’s office in downtown Pagosa and wasn’t able to obtain much information.
“Who can I talk to, find out what direct services are being provided by San Juan Basin Public Health at the Archuleta County office?” Kleckner asked.
The Archuleta investigating committee had been hoping to meet with the SJBPH leadership since HDIC’s initial organizational meeting in early August, and we must assume that the volunteer committee was gratified to finally arrange for a face-to-face discussion. Not that it’s a simple matter, of course, for a group of amateur investigators to understand an agency with a $6.5 million budget, 17 departments, and a staff of 90 people. (I use the term ‘amateur’ with all due respect, being one myself.)
At the October 13 meeting, Board of Health President Ann Bruzzese summarized the services provided in Archuleta County, which are not precisely the same range of services provided in La Plata County. The differences might be justifiable. Although La Plata and Archuleta share a substantial boundary line, their populations are rather different — not only politically, but also physically. The average age in Archuleta County is 50 years; the average age in La Plata County is 39. The average working wage in Archuleta County is about $800; in La Plata, it’s about $1,100. (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
La Plata County is home to Fort Lewis College, with an enrollment of about 3,300 students — equal to about one-quarter of the total population of Archuleta County. Archuleta has no college; not even a community college. We know that the health needs of college students are not identical to the health needs of retired senior citizens.
Archuleta County has a significant number of residents living without centralized drinking water, and without community wastewater services. La Plata, not so much.
But before we get into services that may, or may not, be provided in Archuleta County, I’d like to offer an opinion about this potential divorce, that might help to frame the questions raised by the Archuleta HDIC.
Although some tensions developed between Archuleta County leadership and SJBPH leadership during the COVID pandemic — around mask mandates and other public health measures — the core of the controversy, in my opinion, concerns septic systems.
Commissioner Alvin Schaaf represents the Archuleta BOCC on the SJBPH Board of Health, the governing body that makes policy decisions regarding SJBPH operations. Commissioner Schaaf has a tendency to keep his thoughts to himself during BOCC meetings… but he did verbalize some serious concerns during a Board of Health meeting last year, about the high cost of septic system approvals handled by SJBPH. That particular issue had appeared in the November 2020 BOCC resolution — a resolution that raised questions about Archuleta’s continued participation in SJBPH.
7. SJBPH shall prepare a comprehensive review of all expenses and revenues for the septic permit and inspection services provided to Archuleta County. In addition, SJBPH will provide an action plan to reduce fees and improve services to users.
This issue has a direct bearing on the availability of affordable housing in Archuleta County, during a serious housing crisis.
The first two houses I lived in, upon arriving in Pagosa Springs in 1993, had been built in the downtown core about 90 years earlier, and were originally serviced by outhouses, rather than flush toilets. I am estimating that flush toilets began to make a general appearance in Pagosa around 1960, based on the testimony of a friend who lived in Pagosa during the 1950s and who was familiar with our house on Lewis Street.
We bought that house in 1993 for $52,000.
In the 1970s, developers began to buy up ranch properties in what is now the Pagosa Lakes area, and ultimately designed 21 square miles of suburban subdivisions with centralized drinking water delivery and sanitation services to be provided by the newly-formed Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District. A bit further west, developers had created the Aspen Springs subdivision — without any water or sanitation services. Several other suburban developments either connected to PAWSD water and sewer, or formed their own centralized water and sanitation systems.
As real estate and home prices skyrocket in Pagosa Springs, many of the most affordable parcels (and homes) are located out in the more rural parts of the community… areas not served by municipal water, or by centralized sanitation, so they rely on OSWT (On Site Wastewater Treatment) systems.
Septic systems.
I understand that SJBPH is currently charging $1,000 for a typical septic system permit, and the system itself must then be designed by a licensed engineer, resulting in a cost somewhere around $20,000 – $30,000 to install.
Ouch.
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.