PHOTO: The PAWSD offices on Lyn Ave.
I will begin this article series with a disclosure.
Disclosure: I currently serve on the Board of Directors for Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) but I’m not speaking for the Board here, but sharing only my own opinions.
And I do indeed have opinions to share. And some observations.
But before I share them, I’d like to share the opinions of another community activist, Candace Jones. Ms. Jones is one of the volunteer members serving on the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) Board of Directors, and the particular opinion I will be sharing is related to her concern for that district’s mission and goals.
We will note in passing that Ms. Jones also writes for the Archuleta County Democratic Party website, and also, occasionally, submits thoughtful letters to the editor of the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN.
In this situation, however, her commentary relates to the consistently-controversial Running Iron Ranch. Her comments were presented at yesterday’s regular meeting of the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) board meeting.
She had previously submitted her comments in written form, because she was unsure whether she would be allowed to address the PAWSD Board via Zoom. As it turned out, she was indeed invited to speak to the PAWSD Board, at the start of yesterday’s meeting, and she read from the written comments she had submitted earlier.
Ms. Jones’ comments began as follows:
As some of you may recall, I am a member of the Board of Directors of the San Juan Water Conservancy District. I share this detail in the interest of transparency and to make clear that the views I express in these comments are my own. I am not writing to express the views of the SJWCD or any other individual SJWCD board member.
Early in the year, I visited the 20-acre river access parcel with representatives of the business community, County, and other SJWCD board members. That visit provided context for a request that PAWSD and SJWCD work together to make river access available there for the benefit of outfitters and the public. The County was willing to lease the property to facilitate public access. The County prepared a lease that reflected responsibilities identified by PAWSD staff and by others during the site visit.
The PAWSD Board, pressed with other matters, could not make time to consider the proposed lease or hold a joint work session with the SJWCD to discuss the lease or a path forward. The community lost the value of access for another year.
Now, instead of working with the County, local businesses, and the SJWCD board, PAWSD unilaterally notified the County Administrator (according to his report to the Commissioners at their work session Tuesday) that a deal for public access is off the table. PAWSD now plans to turn the land into a recreation facility for PAWSD employees.
Needless to say, Ms. Jones was not happy with the way PAWSD was proceeding with a proposed river access for recreationalists. The “river access” had originally been proposed by the SJWCD board last year. (You can download Ms. Jones’ letter, here.)
We will share more of her comments later.
But we’ll pause here for some background on the “20-acre river access parcel”… some of which you probably know already, and some you may not know.
In 2008, the PAWSD Board and the SJWCD Board — without asking the voters — agreed to purchase a 660-acre ranch northeast of downtown Pagosa Springs as the site for a future water reservoir. PAWSD took out a $9.2 million loan, and SJWCD contributed a $1 million grant. All of the money — loan and grant — came from the Colorado Water Conservancy Board (CWCB).
The two water districts became ‘tenants in common’ — joint owners of the Running Iron Ranch on behalf of the taxpayers. The loan would be repaid by PAWSD customers. Fulfilling the terms of the $1 million grant, by getting the reservoir built, was the responsibility of SJWCD.
The reservoir was planned to be 35,000 acre-feet — about 20 times the size of Lake Hatcher. The plan was to build a pumping station and water treatment plant on 20 acres of riverfront property along the San Juan River.
In the map below, you can see the ’20 acres’ tinted in pink, to the left of Highway 160; the rest of the former Running Iron Ranch is tinted yellow. (The reservoir shown in this map is theoretical.)
The estimated cost of the reservoir was revealed the following year: $357 million.
Two years later, the project had been downsized. National sportsman’s organization, Trout Unlimited, challenged the reservoir water rights at the Colorado Supreme Court, and the Court rejected the 35,000 acre-foot plan. With water rights now for a smaller reservoir, the pumping station and treatment plant were deemed unnecessary… meaning that the 20 acres might, theoretically, be used for some other purpose.
Recreation?
Another change took place in 2015, when PAWSD and SJWCD signed a new agreement with CWCB. PAWSD took on the added responsibility for paying off the $1 million loan — if the reservoir is not constructed — and SJWCD officially took over ‘management’ of the reservoir project.
Last year, the SJWCD Board proposed that the 20-acre parcel — no longer seen as part of the reservoir project — should be opened to the rafting industry and recreationalists in general, as the location for a ‘put-in’ for boating and tubing down the San Juan River.
After discussing the ‘put-in’ idea with the PAWSD Board, and getting a tepid agreement to explore the idea, SJWCD President Al Pfister approached the Town of Pagosa Springs with the idea that the Town could manage the proposed river access.
The Town, having other priorities on its plate, rejected the idea.
Mr. Pfister then approached the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, suggesting that the BOCC could manage this proposed recreational amenity. The BOCC liked the idea, and directed County Attorney Todd Weaver to send a draft ‘lease’ to the PAWSD Board, for their review.
In the meantime, however, the PAWSD Board has been heading in a very different conceptual direction.