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.
As mentioned in Part One on Friday, the taxpayer-funded San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) has been promoting the idea of locating a recreational amenity — a river access ‘put-in’ — on the portion of the Running Iron Ranch adjacent to the San Juan River.
The Running Iron Ranch was jointly purchased by SJWCD and Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) in 2008, as the site for a future water reservoir.
In comments made to the PAWSD Board of Directors last Thursday, SJWCD Board member Candace Jones referred to the proposed recreational site as “the 20-acre river access parcel”. (You can download Ms. Jones’ comments here)
Also, as mentioned in Part One, a 2015 agreement between PAWSD, SJWCD, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) requires PAWSD customers to pay off the entire cost of the $10 million Running Iron Ranch purchase… while requiring SJWCD to take over management of the reservoir project.
The 2015 agreement with CWCB does not, however, mention SJWCD promoting recreational amenities on the Running Iron Ranch. Nor does SJWCD have the financial means or the staff to manage a recreational facility on the ranch property.
After having their recreational plan rejected by the Town of Pagosa Springs, the current SJWCD Board, led by its president, Al Pfister, talked the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners into writing up a lease for the 20-acre parcel. Under the proposed lease, Archuleta County would have managed the river access put-in.
The lease was presented to the PAWSD Board a few months ago, but the PAWSD Board had taken no action on approving or rejecting the lease.
Until Thursday.
Ms. Jones complained about the lack of action in her comments at the beginning of Thursday’s PAWSD meeting, beginning with a disclosure that she was speaking for herself, and not for the SJWCD Board as a whole.
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…
(This comment about “a recreation facility for PAWSD employees” seems based on a misunderstanding, but we’ll talk more about that, later.)
PAWSD also wants to develop housing, across the road, on a different part of the Running Iron Ranch. I appreciate that workforce housing is a challenge for the community and that members of the PAWSD board would like to support their employees. More workforce housing is a laudable goal.
But should PAWSD be in the business of developing and administering workforce housing? With so many projects on its plate that the PAWSD board couldn’t finish one lease with the County, how does it expect to become a residential landlord?
More significantly, the Rules and Regulations of PAWSD establish its purpose, which is “to provide for the control, management, and operation of the water and wastewater systems of the District, including additions, extensions, and connections thereto, and to provide for the administration and enforcement of such standards.” It is not the purpose of PAWSD to develop or administer housing, and PAWSD’s management and operations are not designed for PAWSD to act as a housing developer or residential landlord.
I know that some members of the PAWSD board chafe at the history of the Running Iron Ranch, the purpose for which it was acquired, and any plans to advance the objective of additional water storage. Like it or not, PAWSD’s interests in the Running Iron Ranch are bound up with the interests of SJWCD and the community in the bigger picture of water in this area. Making end-runs around other stakeholders to construct housing there will not serve the public in the long run.
As a PAWSD customer, I encourage the board not to push PAWSD into a line of business outside PAWSD’s public purpose — water and wastewater — and beyond its experience and operations.
We might want to step back, and try to get some perspective on “public purposes”.
The SJWCD Board is chaired by its president, Al Pfister, a biologist who runs a consulting business called Western Wildscapes. One of Mr. Pfister’s recent consulting jobs was to help develop a ‘Stream Management Plan’ for the San Juan River, on behalf of Durango-based Mountain Studies Institute.
For his work with Mountain Studies, Mr. Pfister has been paid about $30,000 (as far as I can tell from the published Mountain Studies budgets.)
The primary outcome of the ‘Stream Management Plan’ process was a proposal to apply for $2 million in various government grants, to be used for ‘enhancing’ about three miles of the San Juan River, for improved recreation and aquatic habitat.
The stretch of river Mr. Pfister and his team picked to spend $2 million on, starts approximately at the 20-acre Running Iron Ranch property, and continues downstream to the east end of downtown Pagosa Springs.
As shown in this map, as a blue line:
We might imagine that Mr. Pfister — after spending considerable time helping to develop a $2 million recreational plan for the San Juan River — might be eager to see a recreational boating ‘river access’ facility created at the top of the potentially “enhanced” stretch of river on which his team has been focused.
This stretch of the San Juan River is mainly owned by private property owners, so river access is extremely limited. The Running Iron Ranch includes one of very few riverfront parcels owned by the taxpayers. Maybe the only such parcel?
As luck would have it, Mr. Pfister happens to be volunteer president of the San Juan Water Conservancy District — one of the tax-funded entities that invested in the 660-acre Running Iron Ranch in 2008… a ranch that includes a 20-acre parcel located in a very convenient location on the San Juan River.
Additionally, Mr. Pfister oversees a board of directors who, luckily, have no concerns about whether Mr. Pfister has a conflict of interest in this situation, as a paid consultant who helped develop this $2 million recreational river plan.
One of those SJWCD board members is Ms. Jones, who — to judge by her comments to the PAWSD Board on Thursday — is also a big fan of using the 20 acre parcel for recreational access.
She told the PAWSD Board she was not, however, in favor of PAWSD using the 20 acres as a “recreation facility for PAWSD employees”.
But, in fact, the PAWSD Board was never planning to use the 20 acres for “employee recreation”.
PAWSD is hoping to use the 20 acres for housing.
It’s complicated…