Significant Progress Made on Santa Rita Wastewater Treatment Plant
Photo courtesy of City of Durango
Elaine Chick, Program Manager at the Water Information Program (WIP) contacted Gregg Boysen, Durango City Engineer, to talk about the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility and the status of the project.
WIP - What was the city’s decision to upgrade the plant?
Gregg Boysen - City Engineer - "The City will be receiving a new discharge permit from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Every sanitary sewer treatment facility receives a new permit from the State every 3 years. We expected the permit to issued in May of this year, but with all of the State budget cuts, they have not had a person to assign our permit too. We could receive the permit any day, but our expectation is the issuance of the permit will be sometime next year."
"Since our last permit was issued in 2013, the State has begun enforcing the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission Regulation 85 (WQCC Reg. 85) Nutrients Management Control Regulation. This regulation requires a much lower release level of total phosphorus and total inorganic nitrogen from wastewater plants of the City’s size. The State informed the City that these new discharge requirements would become effective with our new permit and therefore the reason for the plants upgrades."
WIP - Where you are in the process?
GB - City Engineer - "The construction began in May of 2017 and is scheduled as a 2-year project and therefore we are a little over half way complete. The primary treatment component to meet the Regulation 85 requirements is the new aeration basins. These new basins were operational as of May of this year in anticipation of receiving, and meeting, our new State permit. The new aeration basins are 4 times larger than our old basins and allow a greater treatment process than the old basins. The project is on schedule for completion in the spring of 2019."
So far, the project is running on time and within budget.
WIP - How many phases has there been to get to where you are now and how many more to get to completion?
GB - We recently reached a project milestone by completing the new aeration basins and turbine air blower building. We have also installed return activated sludge (RAS) and waste activated sludge (WAS) pumps and piping in the existing treatment complex, which is now undergoing renovations to convert the existing basins into secondary clarifiers.
"The aeration process is the most important part of the process to meet the WQCC Reg. 85. We met this milestone and are continuing construction on the other components of the project. There are a total of 11 major components to the project listed below and numerous upgrades to the existing system. Other than Milestone 1, we don’t have phases of the project. Each element of the project below is a separate challenge and needs to be completed in a sequence in order to keep the existing plant in operation while building new infrastructure. At the beginning of the project the general contractor, Archer Wester Construction, summed it up nicely. He said upgrading an existing sewer plant is like replacing your car engine while the engine is still running."
Major components of the project include:
- New Blower/Chemical Building;
- New Aeration Basins;
- New Sidestream Basins;
- Two additional Final Clarifiers;
- New Headworks Building;
- One additional Anaerobic Digester Building;
- New Digester Support Building;
- New UV Disinfection Building;
- New Geodetic Dome Covers of the existing two Primary Clarifiers;
- New Odor Control system;
- New Primary Sludge Pump system.
WIP - What are the benefits once completed?
GB - “The new Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility will be state of the art and the discharge from the plant will meet and exceed the States allowances providing for a better river environment for everyone.”
In addition to improving water quality, the construction will increase the plant’s capacity from 3 million gallons a day to 3.4 million and control the plant’s odor.
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First Lake Nighthorse Water Use Celebrated with Pipeline Completion
On July 25, 2018, La Plata West Water Authority held the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to commemorate completion of the Phase 0 Raw Water Project. The ceremony was held at the Booster Pump Station located on County Road 210, at the entrance to the access road for the raw water intake structure at Lake Nighthorse. The event was attended by 32 guests all celebrating their efforts in making the project possible and come to fruition.
The new rural domestic water pipeline is a four-way partnership between La Plata West, Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Tribes, and Lake Durango. The process of this massive and costly construction design had to be laid out in multiple phases.
Phase 0 of the pipelines’ goal is to provide a supply of raw water from the La Plata reservoir up to Lake Durango.
For more information contact LPWWA at lpwwa.org or call: 970-403-5790.
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Resister now for the Annual Water 101 - 201 Seminar - Sept. 18 & 19, 2018
Please join us for this very informative annual Water 101 and 201 Seminar, taking place at the First Park Community Center in Nucla, CO. on September 18 & 19, 2018.
Topics include water law, an explanation of water-related agencies and organizations, drought contingency and stream management planning, history and administration of the San Miguel, as well as discussion about timely and important water topics and issues. The 201 Session will provide more in-depth information on water law to include compacts and the water court process.
** New this year, the Seminar qualifies for 10 hours Supplemental TUs for Colorado Water and Wastewater Facility Operators; as well as 11 continuing education credits (CECs) for Realtors, and potential 6 CEC’s for Lawyers (awaiting approval) for completion of both days.
The seminar is sponsored by the Water Information Program and Tri-State Generation & Transmission. The Seminar features a line-up of qualified speakers, including our keynote—Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs (retired), as well as representatives from federal, state, and local agencies.
For more information and to register click here Photo: Justice Greg Hobbs (retired)
Sponsored by the Water Information Program and Tri-State Generation and Transmission
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Alert! Free Webinar: Colorado River Drought Planning
On Wednesday, August 29 at 10:00am, the Colorado River Water Conservation District is providing a free hour-long webinar on "Big River" issues. The presentations will cover ongoing efforts to protect and develop Western Colorado’s water resources, what current drought conditions throughout the Colorado River basin mean for western Colorado communities, and an overview of Drought Contingency Planning (DCP) efforts that may help avoid the curtailment of Upper Basin water uses under the Colorado River Compact of 1922. Colorado River District General Manager, Andy Mueller, and members of the staff will be available to answer questions following the presentations.
To register click here.
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WEBINAR: From Planning To Implementation, A Look At Steamboat Springs' Stream Management Plan
Water Education Colorado will be hosting a webinar about Steamboat Springs' new stream management plan.
Learn how science and local priorities led to recommendations in the plan, what a completed plan means for existing flow agreements, and how implementation might look going forward. While we'll focus on Steamboat's work, lessons learned from their process will be applicable across the state.
Hear from speakers:
Kelly Romero-Heaney, City of Steamboat Springs
Seth Mason, Lotic Hydrological
Zach Smith, Colorado Water Trust
Webinar takes place September 6 from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
To register click here
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Get to Know Elaine Chick, WIP Program Manager
The Water Information Program Manager, Elaine Chick, was interviewed by Water Education Colorado for their news blog. To find out a little bit more about Elaine, click on the link below.
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Available Grant and Water Funding Sources
Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) is now accepting applications for the Colorado Watershed Restoration Grant program on a rolling basis for areas affected by fire in 2018 in order to better align the program to the current needs. The regular application deadline is November 2, 2018. Grant money can be used for planning and engineering studies, including implementation measures, to address technical needs for watershed restoration and flood mitigation projects throughout the state.
The CWCB has compiled a detailed outline of all of the available federal and state funding resources for drought, fire, and flood response. Check it out here.
Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) has put out a document relating to available financial assistance for water and wastewater improvements. Click here for more information.
USDA as also announced a funding opportunity for rural water infrastructure projects. Click here for more on this.
SWCD has made the grant program guidelines available on their website, which have been clarified slightly in response to board and public feedback after last year's significant changes to the program. They have also updated the application in the hopes of making it more user-friendly.
Applications for SWCD grant program 2019 funding can be submitted starting November 1, 2018, but no later than December 14, 2018. If possible, please try to submit applications towards the beginning of this window to allow for staff to work with you to answer any outstanding questions.The amounts available for the 2019 grant program are subject to board appropriation.
You can find both those documents here:
https://swwcd.org/programs/financial-assistance-program/
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August Drought Update
2018 is sizing up to be the second warmest and the fifth driest October through July period in the 123 year record according to CWCB.
Warm water temperatures and low river flows continue to stress fish populations around the state, with many fish found dead in our rivers, state hatcheries are struggling to keep up supplies. Many areas are also impacted by ash flows and post fire related water quality issues. Water users have been working collaboratively across the state to maintain flows, where possible, and voluntary fishing restrictions are the most widespread the state has seen.
Parks and wildlife officials announced there will be fishing closures on some rivers and streams. Read more from Sky-Hi News here.
To view the August CWCB drought report click here.
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