That’s one of my fantasies — that governments were created to serve us, the ordinary taxpayers. That they were not created to serve wealthy developers, and bankers, and corporations. It’s a fantasy that keeps me feeling hopeful, when reality falls short.
— from an op-ed in the Pagosa Daily Post, March 2016.
During a conversation with a neighbor the other day, we touched briefly on the subject of generational poverty, and on the fact that, while the state of Colorado has a ‘poverty rate’ of about 10%, the ‘poverty rate’ in downtown Pagosa Springs is closer to 35%.
42% of children in the town of Pagosa Springs live below the poverty rate.
We’re referring here to the federally-defined ‘poverty rate’. The United States measures poverty based on how an individual’s or family’s income compares to a set federal threshold. For example, in the 2021 definition, people are considered impoverished if their household income is below $26,500 for a family of four.
Obviously, this federal threshold has no direct relationship to a 2022 assessment by Region 9 Economic Development District, that a family of four in Archuleta County needs an income of $92,000 a year just to meet basic needs — housing, utilities, transportation, health care, taxes, etc.
My neighbor and I also touched briefly on the subject of hot water.
To be more specific, geothermal hot water — the type of geothermal hot water from which Pagosa Springs got its original name from the Ute Indians. Pagwöösa. “Water that has a bad smell”.
What would be the best possible use for hot, geothermal water? Say… in a town where one out of three families live below the federal poverty line… and almost no families have an income of $92,000 a year. Our conversation got me thinking about my experiences with the Town government, and with our local resort properties that use our geothermal water.
One of the first things my family noticed, arriving in downtown Pagosa Springs from Santa Fe, NM, for a holiday weekend in 1987, was the charming odor of rotten eggs. We didn’t connect that peculiar odor to a chemical known as hydrogen sulfide. And also, I didn’t notice that, after just a few minutes sitting beside the Spa Motel swimming pool, I no longer detected the odor.
That’s one of the odd characteristics of hydrogen sulfide gas, also referred to as H2S. First you smell it… and then you don’t.
From the Illinois Department of Public Health:
…Hydrogen sulfide gas occurs naturally in crude petroleum, natural gas, volcanic gases and hot springs…
…At low levels, hydrogen sulfide gas has a strong odor similar to rotten eggs. You can smell hydrogen sulfide gas at lower levels than may cause health effects, so smelling the gas does not always mean that it will make you sick. However, at higher levels, your nose can become overwhelmed by the gas and you cannot smell it. At higher levels, hydrogen sulfide gas can make you sick and can be fatal…
Whether sitting in water that smells like rotten eggs is good for your health has been a subject of debate for many years, in tourists towns like Pagosa Springs. Prior to the sale of The Springs Resort and Spa to the Whittington family in 2005, the motel and hot springs pools were known as the ‘Spring Inn’. The motto included on the Spring Inn signage and printed materials:
“Naturally therapeutic mineral baths.”
The current owners — a Kansas-City-based real estate investment trust called EPR Properties — have carried on the tradition of claiming therapeutic benefits and “natural healing properties” for hot, mineral-rich water. From The Springs Resort’s web page about “World Bathing Day 2023”:
On the occasion of World Bathing Day, there is no better place to celebrate the restorative and transformative power of hot spring bathing than The Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs. As an award-winning destination, The Springs Resort embodies the essence of this global event by embracing the therapeutic benefits of hot springs. With its unique facilities, which include 25 soaking pools and river access, and its commitment to preserving the natural healing properties of these mineral-rich waters, The Springs Resort offers guests a truly immersive experience.
Back in February 2019, two developers hosted a community meeting at the EcoLuxe Hotel at The Resort. David Dronet, representing Texas-based Olympus Real Estate Group, and local developer Jack Searle, announced a proposed joint venture to re-make downtown Pagosa Springs.
Mr. Dronet told the audience that his family had been visiting Pagosa Springs for the past 12 years. Mr. Searle had lived in Pagosa Springs for many years, and had been involved in several philanthropic efforts here, including Justice Ministries.
The two developers appeared ready to collaborate on some type of development project on 27 acres of vacant land, tucked into a bend in the San Juan River, that has defied development ever since the town was platted in 1883.
During the February 7 community meeting, Mr. Dronet made the following comment:
“And I say that, because when I’m explaining to some friends or partners when they come here, what does this geothermal resource means and how do we convey that… We view ourselves as ‘stewards’ of a resource. It’s tough to think that ‘ownership’ of a resource like this is even possible. So we view ourselves as stewards…”
Mr. Dronet may have been confused about the ownership of geothermal resources, when those resources happen to be hot, smelly water flowing up from deep inside the earth. Colorado has specific laws about water written into its Constitution, and basically, you cannot legally ‘own’ water. You can only possess the right to use water, with certain legal obligations attached.
Or so I understand.
The Springs Resort & Spa actually owns the rock that surrounds the Great Pagosa Hot Springs — the Mother Spring, as Mr. Dronet calls it — but the Springs Resort does not actually own the water in the Mother Springs. The water belongs to all of us. The Resort uses the water, and is then required to release it into the San Juan River, to serve other water users downstream.
When the previous owners of the Springs Resort — Matt Mees and Bill Dawson — wanted to expand their “naturally therapeutic mineral baths” complex back in the late 1990s, they apparently didn’t have enough water rights to service their proposed development. So they approached the Town government and negotiated a geothermal pipeline to be hung below a future pedestrian bridge. The bridge would be located between the County Courthouse and The Springs Resort.
The attached pipeline was to direct water from the Town-owned PS-5 geothermal well — located behind the County Courthouse — over the San Juan River, to the Springs Resort.
The water from the PS-5 well did not belong to the Town government. The Town merely had a right to use the water — to operate an innovative municipal heating system for the schools and businesses in downtown Pagosa. But the Town’s lawyers, working hand-in-hand with The Springs Resort’s lawyers, came up with a clever plan to define the privately-owned bathing pools as part of a “municipal heating system.” The arrangement involved a long-term “lease” of the Town’s municipal water from the PS-5 well.
We can all agree, I suspect, that The Resort is very attractive… and appears to be a popular tourist attraction.
When Pagosa Springs first grew up around our special resource — artesian geothermal water that some claim to have therapeutic properties — the resource appeared to be virtually unlimited. But water that once flowed from the earth is a seemingly endless stream, now must be pumped.
It’s possible the resource is not unlimited. In fact, if we want to believe dire predictions about the ‘aridification’ of the American West as the result of climate change, our geothermal spring might be a member of an endangered species.
No one really knows.