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City may share plant costs

Water District is interested
The city is talking with La Plata Archuleta Water District about sharing the cost of a new water-treatment plant that would be built near the foot of Lake Nighthorse’s dam.

The city of Durango may work with the La Plata Archuleta Water District to build a new water-treatment plant below the Lake Nighthorse dam.

The proposed Ridges Basin Water Treatment Plant is estimated to be a $50 million project that would require a vote of the people to approve the debt for project, said City Manager Ron LeBlanc.

If approved, construction could start in five years, said Gregg Boysen, the city engineer.

The Ridges Basin water plant would allow the city to shut down operations at the current treatment plant to do maintenance and eliminate single-points of failure such as the current city storage tank, said Steve Salka, Durango’s utilities director.

If a problem ever developed with the tank, the city would have no alternative water source.

The water district is interested in working with the city on the project because it owns water in the lake that could be used to serve their customers on the west side of their service area.

“It seems more fiscally responsible to build one treatment plant,” said Ed Tolen, general manager of the La Plata Archuleta Water District.

In addition to the plant, the water district would like to share some of the other facilities, including a storage tank, LeBlanc said.

It is still early in the negotiation process, and Tolen could not say how the city and the district would split construction costs.

The city’s portion would be paid for by city water fees. Water rates were increased in January 2015 to help pay for infrastructure, and consultants recommended the Durango City Council to increase them in 2016, as well.

La Plata Archuleta Water District has a similar agreement with Bayfield that was signed in 2012. The district is paying to expand the Bayfield water-treatment plant capacity by 1 million gallons a day. The expansion of the plant began in early June.

Right now, the district is serving about 55 residences southwest of Bayfield, but it has the potential to serve about 3,600, Tolen said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

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