At a Pagosa Springs Town Council work session on Jan. 13, Public Works Director Karl Johnson gave an update on a wastewater system emergency, which developed late last week after a submersible pump guide rail system disconnected, halting the operation of Pump Station #1.
As of Monday, Jan. 12, the town-run Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) was asking residents in the downtown area to continue to “flush solid waste and minimize flushing liquid waste,” “take shorter showers and baths” and “minimize using the sink, washing machine and dishwasher.”
The PSSGID serves an area generally east of Piedra Road and including the downtown area.
At the work session, Johnson said that “a bypass pump is installed, and we have another one coming to be on standby, explaining that a back up bypass pump is needed at Pump Station #1 “due to the pressures we’re dealing with at that station compared to Pump Station #2.”
He added, “The manufacturer recommended we have another pump on standby just in case, so there should be one on site by Thursday morning.”
When asked what caused the guide rail system to become disconnected, Johnson explained, “We have yet to be able to do a full assessment to find out what happened within the wet well.”
He further explained, “From what we can tell, right now, there was a guide rail that the submersible pump follows to get connected to the force main, and we think the bottom bracket to the guide rail came loose and actually came loose on both of those pumps in that wet well.”
He added that staff are looking at some “after-market” manufacturers who offer a different guide rail system, and the town may also look at ordering pumps from a different manufacturer than the current pumps.
“I wanted to plant that seed that we may be coming before you to let you know that we are going to do that,” he explained.
The good news, he noted, is that “we did not have a sanitary sewer overflow,” adding that “the crew spent all night skimming off the top and taking loads … to Pump Station 2 while we were waiting for velocity to come with the bypass pump.”
He explained the crew got the bypass up and running on Friday and had it “pretty well figured out” by Saturday, and that, by Sunday, “we were able to pump out the overflow vault and get that under control. So, right now, we are actually working on a flow system from the bypass pump at our normal set points within the wet well.”
The PSSGID currently maintains about 17 miles of sewer pipes, with 325,000 gallons of sewage pumped per day, serving 1,500 households, according to the town.
This setback for the PSSGID is part of a long list of repairs and replacements of pumps since the PSSGID began pumping its wastewater through a series of lift stations seven miles uphill to the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District’s Vista wastewater treatment plant.
Last summer, the town also had to battle an emergency situation caused by the failure of a submersible pump at Pump Station #2 after an electrical surge caused by a lightning strike took out one of the pumps at that station, with the remaining pump failing on the afternoon of June 16.
Flooding in October 2025 also knocked out a sewer main under the U.S. 160 bridge at 1st Street, necessitating a bypass of that sewer main.
“We’re finding, as time goes by, that besides trying to do that distance and the lift we are doing, that alone was not a good idea,” Johnson said.
He also noted that his staff is finding flaws in the equipment originally purchased for the uphill conveyance system.
“The materials of construction and how it was constructed and who constructed it — it all wasn’t a good idea from the get go, and it’s been really challenging,” he said, adding, “We’re going from one pump station to the other, chasing our tail.
He explained that Utilities Supervisor Lucian Brewster “and his crew have been on site and have not worked a normal day since the first of the year.”
Johnson described “pump failures, control system failures — it’s just been constant since the first day of the year.”
derek@pagosasun.com
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