At a July 1 meeting, Public Works Director Karl Johnson gave another update to the board of the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) about the town’s ongoing efforts to stabilize its wastewater conveyance system.
The town’s public works staff has had to battle an emergency situation caused by the failure of the remaining submersible pump in the wet well at Pump Station 2.
An electrical surge, caused by a lightning strike, previously took out one of the pumps at Pump Station 2, and the remaining pump failed on the afternoon of June 16.
The functional operation of Pump Station 2 is crucial to the town’s overall wastewater conveyance system, which, through a series of pump and lift stations, sends the town’s wastewater 7 miles to the Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant owned and operated by the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD).
To run at ideal capacity, each pump station requires two submersible pumps, often referred to as “wet pumps,” and two above-ground, or “dry,” pumps, with the pairs phasing in and out from the other as stress is put on the system, Johnson explained at a previous meeting.
As of now, neither of the two pump stations have had their full lineup of pumps in operation.
Johnson explained that since he learned of the failure at Pump Station 2, public works staff had worked nonstop to stabilize the system.
In response to the situation, the town sent out an emergency notice to PSSGID customers stating that “this combination of failures is putting extreme pressure on the remaining system, which has already been working overtime while replacement parts arrive.”
The notice asked users to “limit the amount of water going down the drain in all forms” to minimize strain on the system, adding, “we urgently need community-wide support to minimize stress on the wastewater system until repairs can be made.”
Johnson explained that, to prevent “a spillover,” staff worked with contractor Browns Hill Engineering to force the pump to run in hand position only, which required around-the-clock, in-person monitoring to avoid a sewer overflow at that station.
To further stabilize the system, the town rented a crane truck from a contractor in Bayfield to transplant one of the two submersible pumps from Pump Station 1 to be installed at Pump Station 2 to keep it operational, Johnson explained.
The assist from one of the pumps from Pump Station 1 has since allowed the resumption of automated operation at Pump Station 2, he noted.
The town then purchased a used crane truck from an auction house in Marshall, Texas, for $122,000, so it will now have in-house equipment to better respond to such emergencies, Johnson continued.
Town Manager David Harris said that “having our own crane truck” is part of the PSSGID’s “backup plan” in emergency situations.
An agenda document on the matter also states that “staff plans on dropping off the two failed wet well pumps at the manufacturer for warranty inspection and possible rewinding of the motor. The manufacturer will deliver pumps back to Pagosa Springs after any potential repairs.”
Harris explained that “having the crane truck, having backup pumps to drop in at a moment’s notice, let alone having an emergency bypass pump” is all part of being prepared for any situation with the conveyance system.
He added, “Yes, all that costs money, but it would be far nicer to have nights where we can sleep and not worry about whether or not we’ll make it through the night, so we are putting in place this contingency plan.”
PSSGID board member Gary Williams asked if there is a document that shows all of the pumps that the town has had to buy since the current conveyance system went into place.
Johnson explained that a former town manager had “started a spread sheet to document that,” but that the documentation had stopped after the town “decided not to take any legal recourse.”
However, since that time, Johnson noted, he asked to have it documented, “so we do have a document on the total expenditures” of the materials.
Williams said that it’s important that “we’ve got a document that says it has cost us a lot of money and a lot of time, you know, and here’s the evidence. It could help with the regulators.”
At a previous meeting, Johnson said, “This is where we find ourselves,” adding that he didn’t want to dwell on past decisions made by the town, but that “we need to get away from the current conveyance system.”
At the most recent meeting, he stated that he has initiated conversations with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to resurrect the process to construct a new town-run treatment plant at Yamaguchi Park South.
He added that he’s even had conversations with Harris about exploring the idea of a “portable, package plant that [the CDPHE] can bring in on an emergency-type basis” until a permanent plant can be approved and built.
This would be part of an emergency plan to fast-track the town’s abandonment of its current conveyance system, he added, but the CDPHE “could green-light it, or they could not, and if they don’t, then we definitely need to keep the conveyance system going.”
Board president Shari Pierce added that “even if they green-light it, we’re still looking at a few years,” so the town would still need to keep the current system viable.
“It’s still a little bit too early to know the answer to all those questions,” Johnson said.
This most recent emergency comes in the context of a multimillion-dollar project to repair what Johnson has called “category 4 and 5” problems with the system’s piping structure.
A town-produced handout states that the PSSGID currently maintains about 17 miles of sewer pipes, with 325,000 gallons of sewage pumped per day, serving 1,500 households.
The average age of pipe in the system is 50 years old, with approximately one-third of the system either failing or needing critical repairs, the handout states.
It added that $15 million is “needed now” to upgrade these pipes.
A recent memorandum of understanding between the PSSGID and PAWSD states the PSSGID’s “collection system suffers from clogging, root intrusion … and pipe deterioration, resulting in significant intrusion and inflow due to the advanced age and deferred maintenance.”
To tackle the first phase of critical pipe repairs, the town went after revenue bonds to pay for about $4 million in repairs of the immediate category 4 and 5 problems within the system.
These category 4 and 5 pipe repairs are currently underway.
PSSGID board member Leonard Martinez said, “It sounds like despite these recent emergencies, you’re still on schedule” to fix the category 4 and 5 problems.
Johnson responded that the biggest delay from the emergencies has been tackling “the Category 4s, not the 5s,” adding that the town is on schedule for fixing the Category 5 problems.
However, the town still faces millions of dollars of repairs beyond the category 4 and 5 problems with the pipes.
It has been estimated by the town’s financial advisor, Joey McLiney, that the total proposed sewer projects in the coming years will amount to about $40 million and, if the town decides to add a new downtown sewer treatment plant, this number would double.
Harris noted at a listening session that the number is more like $80 million to $100 million to do all the repairs and for future infrastructure needs.
derek@pagosasun.com
