Regardless of our stance on the reservoir, we need to engage the public before we make a major decision about our community’s water future. Although there was community involvement in the [2011] Water Supply Community Work Group, I believe our community has changed and new residents need to be engaged…
— from written comments submitted by consultant Josh Kurz to Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District on December 12, 2024.
I came to the conclusion, earlier this week, that the pending lawsuit between the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) and the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) has resulted from two different philosophies embraced by two different types of organizations.
PAWSD has been delivering drinking water to our community since the early 1970s, and its focus has been on the very best ways to ensure the continuation of that service, at the lowest possible cost to the rate payers. That is to say, the concerns of the PAWSD organization are extremely practical.
SJWCD has never delivered a drop of drinking water to anyone. Its concerns have always been extremely “theoretical”. Currently, those theories are closely tied to a belief in climate change. If your tiny organization is trying to address an idea as big as the global climate, you can’t really concern yourself with small details like ever-increasing property taxes and utility rates in Archuleta County.
And if you find yourself facing a practical-minded PAWSD board interested in lowering customer fees, you might decide that the PAWSD board are, in fact, climate-change-deniers.
As we all know, there’s hardly anything worse than a climate-change-denier.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer PAWSD board member, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD board or staff.
Typically, our local governments engage with the taxpayers directly only when they are asking for — or planning to ask for — a tax increase. The Archuleta School District, for example, has begun just such a process, with public presentations about the current conditions at their facilities.
But once in a while, a government agency will assemble a citizen work group to give advice on policies not directly related to higher taxes, as was done by PAWSD in 2011.
As reported yesterday in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) board of directors recently voted to sell the Running Iron Ranch, purchased back in 2008 as the site for a future reservoir. This decision was made without intentionally engaging the public.
An engineering estimate for that reservoir, in 2009, set the cost at $357 million, to be funded by PAWSD customers.
Following a year-long study by a community work group in 2011, the PAWSD board determined that the reservoir was not needed, and that alternative methods of ensuring access to drinking water would be more cost-effective. Several of those suggested improvements have since been completed.
But PAWSD still owns the Ranch, as joint tenants with SJWCD.
For some reason, the PAWSD board — in 2015 — determined that the volunteer SJWCD board might be capable of making a reservoir happen without burdening local taxpayers. A three-way agreement between SJWCD, PAWSD, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) was the result.
A decade later, a reservoir is no closer to being built than in 2015. The SJWCD board recently hired a consulting firm — this is not a joke — to explain to them how much they don’t know or understand about the project.
Selling the property will get PAWSD customers out from under an ongoing loan obligation amounting to more than $10 million. Meanwhile, SJWCD has publicly committed to preventing PAWSD from selling the Ranch — in a courtroom fight, if necessary.
But neither water district has actively engaged the community in the conversation since the 2011 community work group. Was that a mistake, to leave the public out of the current discussions?
Or would it be a waste of everyone’s time?
The PAWSD board has held eight public meetings since indicating its interest in unsolicited purchase offers for the Running Iron Ranch. Most of those public meetings included, on the agenda, an opportunity for the Pagosa Springs public to address the board on any topic of concern. The Running Iron Ranch sale, for example?
The only members of the community who have made public comment regarding the proposed sale of the Running Iron Ranch — either for or against — have been SJWCD board members or their paid consultant.
The SJWCD board has also held, over the past several months, a number of public meetings to discuss their intention to prevent the sale of the Running Iron Ranch. Some of those meeting have included, on the agenda, the opportunity for the public to speak — in support or in opposition to that policy.
Only one person from the public has ever availed themselves of those opportunities to address the SJWCD board. Yours truly.
Count them. One person… a PAWSD board member who has urged better cooperation between the two water districts.
I take the above facts as an indication of the public’s interest in the Running Iron Ranch issue.
On Monday night, December 16, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners invited the community to learn about a proposed property purchase, and to express their concerns, ask questions, and offer alternative ideas. The meeting was scheduled with minimal notice to the public.
The “community input” event attracted a standing-room-only crowd, and a dozen people willing to address the commissioners.
In a similar vein, four recent presentations by the Archuleta School District concerning the condition of their facilities have attracted dozens of attendees.
The community’s interest in the Running Iron Ranch sale, as expressed by the general public attending public meetings?
Non-existent.
Nevertheless, I personally — speaking now as one member of the volunteer PAWSD board — I personally would welcome a joint meeting of the the two conflicting water district boards, open to the public and open to public comment.
In the meantime, the practical-minded, tax-conscious PAWSD board is moving ahead with efforts to sell the Running Iron Ranch.