Photo: Archuleta County Manager Longinos Gonzalez addressing a standing-room-only audience at the March 25, 2026, ‘Interactive Community Forum’. Screenshot.
The Archuleta County government hosted their second ‘Interactive Community Forum last Wednesday, March 25 at the Springs Resort Ponderosa Room, and attracted a standing-room-only crowd to hear about a potential Lodging Tax increase ballot measure that might appear on next November’s ballot, and also to hear about water restrictions that will most likely kick in during April, due to the unseasonably warm and dry weather we’ve had this year in southwest Colorado.
I wasn’t able to attend the event — my daughter Lily had come down from Alaska to spend several days in Santa Fe, to attend the inauguration of Shelley Lowe, the new President of the Institute of American Indian Arts, and I wanted to hang out with Lily during her visit. (Lily serves on the IAIA Board of Directors.)
Nevertheless, I was sorry to miss the Archuleta County event.
Fortunately, I found a lengthy report on the event posted on social media, written by local resident Joel Hellwege. I also received a brief report on the event from Archuleta County Commissioner John Ranson, who hosted the event, and also some comments from County Manager Longinos Gonzalez Jr.
Here are a few comments from Mr. Hellwege, who is also the founder and CEO of Justice Water Systems, a company that’s apparently been drilling water wells here since 1999 . From his social media page:
My Archuleta County Friends:
Last night, (Wednesday), over a hundred of us attended the meeting put on by Commissioner John Ranson, and moderated by our new and energetic County Manager, Longinos Gonzalez Jr.
The objective of the meeting was to encourage participation from we citizens in what we want our Archuleta County Commissioners to focus their efforts and our money on. In the short video below, Mr. Gonzalez was explaining how we could express ourselves by putting sticky dots on the mapping laid out on the tables in the back of the jam packed room for where we thought we wanted development.
There were two big discussions. One was on the state of our water situation with basically almost no snow in our majestic reservoirs, otherwise called mountains. We were told that the existing reservoirs were either full or almost full, and that the last almost full reservoir was going to be full in the next week or so. We were also told that due to the lack of continued water from the mountains that there were going to be water restrictions put into place very shortly.
I had to ask if Drilled Wells were going to be an option and the answer was no. Then I asked if there had been any studies done on how much water from drilled wells could provide and again the answer was no. I really don’t understand why there currently isn’t an all-inclusive approach to getting water from wherever PAWSD can get it, especially from wells… AND there is no evaporation losses from drilled wells like there are in all of the reservoirs.
I found these comments intriguing, coming from someone who specializes in well drilling.
As Mr. Hellwege notes, water reservoirs are indeed subject to evaporation. My research suggests that a typical reservoir in the American Southwest loses about 10% of its water, annually, to evaporation. Additional water can be lost to seepage.
I’ve been reporting on Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) activities for over 20 years, and I can’t recall ever hearing the Board or staff seriously discuss the idea of getting water from underground — something that’s done in many communities. All the raw water treated by PAWSD comes from the San Juan River and its local tributaries, especially Fourmile Creek.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the PAWSD Board of Directors, but this editorial reflects only my own opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD Board and staff.
One advantage to using surface water: it naturally flows downhill, from the higher mountains to the treatment plant.
One disadvantage to underground wells: the water typically needs to be pumped, which adds the cost of electricity to the final price.
Some of our readers may be familiar with the Buttercup Well in Aspen Springs — the rural subdivision just west of Pagosa Springs that’s home to perhaps 1,000 full-time residents? The subdivision was developed in the late 1960s, just before the state of Colorado began requiring developers to provide municipal water and sewer systems for all new subdivisions.
Most Aspen Springs resident have water trucked in to their homes from a PAWSD fill station located on Trails Boulevard, several miles to the east.
About 15 years ago, the Aspen Springs Metro District developed an artesian well — a well that doesn’t require pumping because the water naturally flows from the ground due to underground pressures — but the District has occasionally struggled with maintenance issues and poor water quality. The well “collapsed” in 2020, according to a story in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, and the Metro District found itself frantically seeking grants to fix the situation. As recently as Last March, the Metro District’s Board minutes included this comment:
Buttercup water station:
There is no shut-off valve at the well. It would be good to have a plan in place in case such a catastrophe happens (80 psi well head pressure, excess of 200 gpm flow rate)…
I’ve also heard from Aspen Springs residents that the water quality from the well is sometimes (or always?) unacceptable.
Another intriguing comment, this time from the January 2021 SUN article about the Buttercup well collapse:
According to PAWSD Manager Justin Ramsey, however, moving the Trails water station would be a favorable option.
At the PAWSD meeting held on December 10, 2020, Ramsey said, “What I’d like to do is move the fill station that is at Trails Boulevard out to the Happy Camper … The real benefit is it moves it out just past Elk Park … We have a 12-inch water main that goes out to Elk Park and feeds the homes out there … the water goes stagnant and we probably discharge several hundred thou- sand gallons a month to keep that water fresh.”
He went on, “If we moved it, I think the people that fill it with water would keep that water flowing that way we wouldn’t have to waste it.”
Ramsey described that he’s been in contact with the manager of the Happy Camper RV park and relayed the owner seems on board.
“As soon as I can get that figured out, we might get that fill station moved,” Ramsey said.
This idea continues to be discussed, six years later, with no evident resolution in sight.
From the Metro District minutes for March 2025:
During a recent working session between County Commissioners and PAWSD, the Aspen Springs Metro District was figuratively thrown under the bus for “refusing to cooperate” with PAWSD in their plans for the large storage tank at Elk Park.
Let the record be clear: PAWSD came to ASMD to find a solution to ‘disposing’ of +100k gallons from the Elk Park storage tank. They proposed to have ASMD be responsible and coordinate a $2.5M+ contract to extend a water line from Elk Park to Buttercup Water Station – including engineering, imminent domain issues, etc. PAWSD would graciously provide a grant writer to apply for the right grants. When asked if PAWSD would commit to not shutting off the water supply to ASMD during drought conditions before supply is cut off from Pagosa Lakes and similar subdivisions, PAWSD refused to make that commitment. In other words, there were no good faith negotiations and ASMD has seen no good faith actions in the Public Entity known as PAWSD.
ASMD as an organization would ask again that if ASMD issues come up in a BOCC or County Planning agenda, an invitation would be extended beforehand to give us a chance to defend ourselves and have an opportunity to become a part of a solution!
As we note from the social media posting by Mr. Hellwege, reporting on the ‘Interactive Community Forum’ hosted by Archuleta County last week, PAWSD reservoirs are expected to be full as we head into the summer tourist season — a season when municipal and agricultural water use increases dramatically.
Due to the lack of snowpack in the San Juan Mountains, PAWSD expects to implement watering restrictions in April. Later in the season, we can probably expect to start paying higher fees as well, especially those who use large amounts of PAWSD water.
It’s my understanding that most agricultural water users are not affected by PAWSD water restrictions, when irrigating their hay fields.