Failure to report wastewater discharges for several months over two years could cost the owners of Lightner Creek Campground $5,000 in fines to the state.

On Aug. 5, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued Robert Owen, owner of the campground northwest of Durango, a notice of violation for not meeting its reporting requirements through several months in 2015 and 2016.

“They’re required to submit on monthly basis,” said Mike Harris, enforcement specialist for the state’s Clean Water Enforcement Unit. “They failed to do that essentially for an entire year’s period of time.”

Owen told The Durango Herald that he and his state-certified water quality monitor had “their wires crossed,” resulting in the late submission of the reports.

“All my tests were good,” Owen said of the water quality of discharges. “They were just not sent in a timely manner.”

Harris said while the violations are not indicative of an environmental issue, it is a priority for the department to receive the reports.

“It (not receiving monthly reports) impairs our ability to be able to ensure that water quality is being protected,” Harris said.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency report, the campground in July 2014 had three effluent violations from discharges at its wastewater facility, exceeding pollutant limits for nitrogen, total suspended solids and biological oxygen demand.

“They have some spotty effluent violations in 2007, 2008 and 2009,” said Harris. “About one month out of each year.”

In a Sept. 2 response to the state, Owen admitted to not submitting the monthly discharge reports but asked the state to lower the fine to $500.

“Lightner Creek Campground is a seasonal, family-owned small business,” the report says. “We believe the imposed civil penalty of $5,000 is extremely excessive and is not economically reasonable.”

Owen further wrote that the campground opens around May 1 and closes in early October, and he and his wife, Andria, often travel and visit family during the off season.

State documents show a string of missed reports during the summer months, from July 1 to Sept. 30 in 2015, and May 1 to June 30 in 2016, among others.

Owen requested a hearing for an appeal to the civil penalty and told the state he would comply with all mandated corrective actions, including submitting missed reports.

A date has not been set for the hearing.

Further downstream, Harris said Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park remains delinquent on the submittal of a required engineering evaluation, in part because the park’s original engineer resigned.

He said the most recent progress report states that Darlene Mann, owner of the mobile home park, and Greg Brand, a contracted engineer, are working on the evaluation.

Mann was issued a Notice of Violation/Cease and Desist Order in February for the mobile home park’s defunct wastewater pit, which is leaching sewage into Lightner Creek, a tributary of the Animas River.

jromeo@durangoherald.com