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Water-plan team seeks support

Tap fees needed to fund project

When a resident of the arid southwest corner of La Plata County once said he drove seven miles to a community spring for potable water, the response of water-issues pioneer Fred Kroeger was: “That’s closer than drilling (a well).”

Kroeger’s dry humor pointed to reality – water in southwest La Plata County is scarce, wells are unreliable and potable water is often available only at a public water dock.

All that could change.

Today, the work of the La Plata West Water Authority, formed in 2007, has put potable water from a kitchen faucet within reach, Roy Horvath, the authority’s chairman, said Friday.

But more residents must provide an up-front tap fee to make the project financially feasible, Horvath said.

A community meeting Thursday and another one planned for Tuesday were called to report the progress on a phased potable-water distribution network and encourage residents to support the project, Horvath said.

A lot of early legwork has been done, the cost of which – an estimated $10.2 million – residents won’t be asked to cover, Horvath said. Tasks already accomplished, he said, include:

A procurement of 700 acre-feet of Animas-La Plata Project water earmarked for southwest La Plata County years ago.

An intake structure for future water projects was built west of the A-LP’s Lake Nighthorse in 2009.

A more recent agreement with Lake Durango Water Authority to treat water for La Plata West Water Authority.

Lake Durango and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe are paying for a pipeline between the intake on Lake Nighthorse and the Lake Durango Water Authority treatment plant.

Lake Durango Water Authority, which supplies drinking water for subdivisions south and west of Durango – among them Durango West I and II, Trappers Crossing, Shenandoah and Rafter J – at times scrapes by on water from a ditch off the La Plata River.

But now it will buy 100 acre-feet of the 700 acre-foot A-LP set aside.

“This amount will meet our current needs and projected needs,” manager Charlie Smith said Friday.

An existing Lake Durango Water Authority pipeline would carry treated water to a La Plata West Water Authority storage tank at Blue Hill, from where gravity would push water through the distribution system.

Agreements are in place with the two Ute tribes on future water availability and distribution. The Utes are heavy investors in the Lake Nighthorse intake and the line that goes from the intake to the Lake Durango treatment plant.

But the early work will have gone for naught if additional financing isn’t forthcoming, Horvath said.

Phase I of La Plata West Water Authority’s project, Horvath said, consists of the storage tank and possibly a water dock at Blue Hill and the distribution network.

The initial neighborhoods to get water are bounded roughly on the north by the border of old Fort Lewis College, on the south by County Road 130; on the east by County Road 136 and on the west by U.S. Highway 140. The area stretches from north of Breen to a little south of Kline.

Phase I design and construction is budgeted at $3.85 million, half of which would come from tap fees, the rest from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development loan fund.

A project timeline calls for a tap fee of $9,250, half of which would be due by April 2015 and the rest in August.

The Phase I service area contains 300 parcels. One hundred owners signed up in 2010 and paid a $500 deposit. But the number of taps must double to make the project a go, Horvath said.

Meanwhile, preliminary engineering will be completed in November. State and federal review of the final design is expected by December 2015 at which time the raw-water line between the Lake Nighthorse intake and the Lake Durango treatment plant will be in place.

“The key to the project is timing,” Horvath said. “But we need a commitment from the community.”

daler@durangoherald.com



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