We shared a map yesterday in Part One, showing the seven-mile sewer pipeline that began delivering the waste water — uphill — from downtown Pagosa Springs to the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation (PAWSD) sequencing batch plant near the Vista mobile home park… 510 feet higher in elevation than the old and abandoned sewer lagoons near Pagosa Springs High School.
At least one of those abandoned lagoons may soon be brought back into service — ‘reincarnated’ you might say — to help the Town-run Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) deal with a potential waste water disaster. Here’s another of the maps included in the PSSGID board meeting packet on Wednesday, April 6. The little brown-roofed house at the very bottom left is Pump Station 1, more affectionately known as PS 1… the main point of concern, as this potential disaster threatens to spill over, so to speak.
Now that we’re close to an emergency, with pumps failing on a regular basis and each of the two pump stations limping along on half their specified number of recently-repaired pumps, the map above shows PSSGID’s plan for a potential system failure. The plan is to add 20-mil plastic liners to two overflow ponds — one adjacent to PS1 (blue outline) and the other an old decommissioned lagoon (top right). If these two lagoons can be commissioned, and the system experiences a total pump failure at PS1 or PS2, these lagoons would be able to hold perhaps two weeks worth of sewage.
Archuleta County has offered the use of some heavy equipment, to help the Town get these two overflow ponds prepared for $72,000 worth of 20-mil plastic.
As mentioned in Part One, this pipeline was probably a flawed idea in the first place. Most certainly, it was a highly unusual approach to handling waste water… and on top of that, it seems to have been poorly designed. For instance, the engineers at Kansas-City-based Bartlett & West determined that, should the pumps fail, the Town could use pumper trucks to handle the temporary sewage overflow. According to what I heard at last night’s PSSGID meeting, it would require about 20 pumper trucks working round the clock — 24 hours a day — to handle the 350,000 gallons of sewage that typically arrive at PS 1 daily.
I don’t believe we even have 20 pumper trucks in Archuleta County.
The Town has been taking various actions over the last five years “to address deficiencies in the system and keep the conveyance system working.” In 2016, PSSGID applied for and received a grant to construct a 250,000-gallon emergency overflow ‘vault’ north of PS 1; it’s been used to manage flows during pump repairs. (The vault can accommodate about 8-12 hours of sewage flow, depending on flow conditions.)
Odor control issues from hydrogen sulfide gas, not fully considered during the design of the system, and the resulting corrosion, have required replacement of electrical components and installation of a scrubber system at each pump station. Different types of pumps have been suggested by the current supplier, Falcon Environmental, and by the manufacturer, Sulzer Pumps, and have been deployed… but “unfortunately, these types of pumps are also seeing failures.”
PSSGID has been required to hire an engineering firm to reprogram the electronic controls, to adjust to operating conditions and “issues with pump cavitation.”
Stated simply, the system has been something of a operational nightmare.
“Two weeks” of overflow storage presents an interesting time frame, because — what with recent supply chain issues — the Town has sometimes has sometimes had to wait several weeks for delivery of repaired or new replacement pumps.
From the Tuesday PSSGID agenda:
Stage One: Diesel pump has been deployed as pumps have failed. PSSGID is able to convey wastewater, emergency overflow vault and wet well are being utilized.
What [Communications] Team will Do:
- Provide basic situational awareness, ask [customers] to “Slow the flow” of use of water (limit showers, dishwasher, laundry, etc.)
- Call top 20 biggest users of PSSGID and notify them (see list of contact names and info)
- Notify Derek Woodman at Archuleta County Admin (Andrea)
- Notify PAWSD (Andrea)
- Kati Harr at Dispatch will be notified by Andrea
- Andrea will notify county Emergency Management — Mike Le Roux and Ryan Foster
- Kristen will put message out on social media
- Andrea will notify Town Council and local media
- Debbie Allen will answer PSSGID phone line
- Leslie will answer Town phone line
- Kathy will send out informational email to all PSSGID customers
- Develop press release as needed; Develop flyer as needed
At ‘Stage Two’… when the diesel bypass pump is proving inadequate, the Parks Department staff will:
…put out variable message boards saying “Slow the Flow; Sewer Pump Failure” and give www.Pagosasprings.co.gov or town phone number.
At ‘Stage Three’… when the wastewater cannot be contained on the PSSGID property and is flowing into the San Juan River, people will be told to stay out of the river, and rafting companies will be alerted. The spill will be reported to state and federal agencies. The overflow will be diluted with fresh water. Testing and damage assessments will be performed.
As the Tuesday agenda suggests:
[Stage Three] could last a while, depending on the ability of the [PSSGID] emergency response success.
That’s a sample of the emergency responses planned by Town staff. But we have another layer of planning still to be performed. The pipeline system is, by many accounts, a failure, and the long-term solution seems to be the construction of a sequencing batch plant. The Town had just such a plant planned back in 2010, and grants and financing for a $7 million batch plant had been secured. The plant had been designed.
But the Town Council and PSSGID were talked into a very unusual alternative — a seven-mile pipeline that was supposed to cost about $5 million, but ended up costing closer to $8 million. Most of the folks doing the talking worked for PAWSD, and the engineering firm hired for the project — Bartlett & West — was a personal favorite of PAWSD’s then-manager Ed Winton, who also hailed from Kansas City.
To now build the same sequencing batch plant designed in 2010 — what with the inflation of construction costs — might be $20 million.
The situation has changed significantly since 2012, when the PAWSD-PSSGID intergovernmental agreement was signed. Not only has the pipeline proved to be a financial disaster… the situation has changed for the Vista Waste Water Treatment Plant.
The Vista plant is also failing. Not because anything is broken, but because the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has changed the rules. And the Vista plant now requires an expensive upgrade to meet current environmental standards. Like, maybe, a $20 million upgrade?
Or $25 million? The cost for the upgrade is uncertain. But whatever the price, it’s virtually guaranteed to increase with each passing year…
Is there a way for PAWSD and PSSGID to collaborate on a joint project?
Like, for example, could the same seven-mile pipeline deliver waste water downhill instead?
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.