The Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors approved updates to the district’s rules and regulations at its May 14 meeting, including changes to the district’s backflow prevention regulations.
PAWSD Programs Manager Renee Lewis explained that many of the changes were “clean up” from changes to how PAWSD treats new development that were made last year.
She added that there were also changes made to reflect PAWSD’s current approach to the mainline extension process and how the district works with developers.
PAWSD District Manager Andrew Connor explained that there are also changes to the regulations that would give more immediate ability to make decisions about turning off or on a customer’s water, which he explained would simplify managing the 15 to 25 customer water turns-offs a month that the district manages.
He added that, currently, customers must wait 24 hours for their water service to be turned on again and that there are “some instances where we really need to turn that water back on.”
PAWSD board chairman Gene Tautges commented that the district should attempt to draft a press release or other public education piece to inform the public about the changes and the process for getting their water turned on again.
Connor stated that the district would work on taking actions to inform its customers about this process.
PAWSD District Engineer Justin Ramsey then spoke to the board about changes to the cross connection control and backflow prevention regulations.
He explained that the technician who ran this aspect of PAWSD’s system moved about eight months ago and that he subsequently started looking at these regulations and realized that there was a disconnect between PAWSD’s regulations and current statutes.
He stated that his revisions did not change the district’s program, but did alter deadlines and would help ensure that the district complies with state regulations.
The board then unanimously voted to approve the revised regulations.
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