The city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant and its smell looms over the nearby Animas River Trail, Whitewater Park and Santa Rita Park. Often called a gateway to Durango, this area could continue to be the plant’s home for decades to come./Photo by Jennaye Derge
Location, location, location
Decision time looms for City Council on aging sewer plant
by Tracy Chamberlin
After years of prep work, it’s coming down to the wire for the Durango City Council.
The five-member board could choose to keep the Wastewater Treatment Plant where it is, taking up valuable park land and saving millions of dollars. They could also decide to move the plant, opening up park space but adding millions and millions to the project’s final cost.
Either choice comes with sacrifice and compromise. And, just to add some complexity to this sewer stew, the clock is ticking.
“I have a lot of empathy for the city and the City Council,” said Andy Corra, co-owner of 4Corners Riversports.
As a member of the boating community, Corra wants to see the plant moved and he believes the council likely wants the same. It just might not be possible.
JusttheFactsWhat: Wastewater Treatment Plant Public Open House More info.: durangogov.org/utilities, in right-hand column click on Alternative Site Investigation: WWTP
Wasteland: City offers peek at inner workingsResidents are getting a chance to see behind the sewer curtain at a Wastewater Treatment Plant Open House from 5-6 p.m. on Sept. 23. Mary Beth Miles, assistant to the city manager, said the open house is a chance for residents to get a behind-the-scenes look. It might not seem like the most attractive of evening options, but Miles, who’s taken the tour herself, admits, “It’s worth seeing.” The biggest eye-opener for her was the headworks. This is the point where everything that’s been flowing down the pipes comes into the plant and the transformation begins. Miles said the incoming flow could include bed sheets and cell phones, along with all the other well-known waste products. The challenge for her was to conceptualize what actually comes into the plant, how it gets routed, treated and put through a process that eventually turns millions of gallons of what was gladly sent down toilets and sinks into something that can either be used again or pumped into the Animas River. – Tracy Chamberlin |
In its current home, the Wastewater Treatment Plant sits right next to Santa Rita Park, which is home to a portion of the Animas River Trail, soccer fields, ball courts, playgrounds, a visitor’s center and the new Whitewater Park, where kayakers, paddlers, tubers and others can enjoy a run through Smelter Rapid – at least until they get a good whiff.
The smell, the eyesore and the space the plant takes up in what Corra called the gateway to the city is valuable to many residents, not just members of the boating community. It’s no surprise so many want to see it go away.
When the plant first opened in the mid-1980s, it would’ve been around $1 million to move it, Cora said. Back then it seemed like too much money but, in retrospect, many wished it would have happened. And for the past 30 years, a lot of people, paddlers included, have wondered how great it would be to finally make the move.
“It won’t be any cheaper to move it later,” Corra explained. “But it might be too expensive for people to bite off.”
In order to find out the financial and technical possibilities of moving the plant downstream, the city hired Mulhern MRE, an Englewood-based civil engineering firm with more than 30 years of experience.
So far, they’ve looked at properties near the county jail, the Dog Park, La Posta Road, Cundiff Park, the gun range and more. Some spots were ruled out in the early going, others got a more in-depth examination.
At this point, four possibilities are still on the table:
- One is to keep the plant where it is and remodel. The estimated cost for option one is $58 million. This includes significant upgrades to odor control and other improvements that would not only bring the plant up to code, but make sure it could handle whatever the city throws at it for the next 20 years.
- Option two is to move the plant to a spot in Bodo Park, which comes with a price tag of $79 million.
- Option three is to move it to an area downstream near La Posta Road, which is an estimated $93 million.
- The fourth and final possibility is a site on the east side of the river by the Durango Mall. This option, though, is still being investigated and the landowners have told city officials they’re not interested in selling the property.
According to Mary Beth Miles, assistant to the City Manager, “Any site that isn’t Santa Rita is going to be more expensive.”
Something that is not lost in the conversation is money. “Cost is a major concern in my book,” City Councilor Sweetie Marbury said in an email.
The location affects not just construction but the cost of operating the plant year after year. This could mean even more increases in water and sewer rates, which are already on the rise.
At the start of this year, residents saw water and sewer bills more than double and additional increases on scheduled to effect in the next couple of years. Those monies will be used to pay for $68 million in construction and other costs, whether the plant stays or goes.
Another cost issue City Councilor Dick White pointed out is that residents are looking at other tax and fee increases for infrastructure projects like county roads, the airport, storm water management and facility improvements in the city. “All this money will come from the same wallets,” he said in an email.
Along with the financial concerns come a whole host of other challenges. For example, the spot in Bodo Park is owned by La Plata County and it does not have a “For Sale” sign on it.
The biggest challenge, however, might be the fact that not all the facilities at the plant’s current location can actually be moved.
City Manager Ron said in a presentation posted on the city’s website, “In either scenario, there will remain … facilities on the Santa Rita site that cannot be removed and, in fact, the operation of the plant would occur at two different locations.”
The way the infrastructure is set up, all the city’s wastewater arrives at the plant at a specific location called the headworks.
Miles said taking that infrastructure out of Santa Rita Park and moving it to a new site would be a “significant” challenge – both financially and logistically. Needless to say, that’s not an option.
Therefore, when considering new sites, the city is also looking at how many pipes and how much money it would take to get the waste from one place to another.
Cora admitted the more he’s learned about the pitfalls and problems with the proposed alternatives to the plant’s current location, he’s come to the realization that moving it might not be an option.
“To see that it might not be able to … it’s so disappointing,” he said. “We missed our opportunity again.”