Colorado River Clearing Up!

Water in the river is improving after the upstream events from last week. Turbidity is still elevated but within normal range for runoff and the water treatment plant is fully operational again. Ecological sampling yesterday revealed many bugs still healthy in the river including stoneflies, caddis, mayflies, boatmen, and water striders. Some folks are even catching fish again.

This sediment problem could have been much worse and operator Jim Kleeman and clerk Sandy White did a great job of keeping water flowing to town residents. The whole situation underlines our need for new water intake, filter, clear well, and storage tank.

Watering Restrictions Return to Normal

Watering Restrictions Back to Even-Odd Days

The Town of Hot Sulphur Springs water treatment plant is back to normal production again, as of Monday 13July09 in the morning, thanks to improved sediment loads in the river. Town residents can now return to their normal (even-odd day) watering schedules. A no-outside-watering restriction was put in place via a “reverse-911” emergency call on Wednesday July 8, 2009 due to an upstream sediment spill into the Colorado River which drove river water turbidity to levels 60 times higher than typical runoff quality.

For more information call Town Hall at 970-725-3933. Thank you for your cooperation.

Water System Up and Running, with a Little Bit of Help from our Neighbors

Operator Jim Kleeman got the Town Water Treatment Plant going with one filter yesterday (Thursday) morning as sediment loads dropped in the river below 50 NTUs (turbidity units). Raw water quality improved throughout the day and we are optimistic things will continue to get better. We are not out of the woods yet so we are still getting deliveries of clean potable water from Granby and Steamboat to keep the tank level up. The photo above is of 2,000 gallon tank truck from Raindrop Water of Steamboat Springs.

Sediment Problem 7-9-09

An incident upstream sent tons of sediment down the Colorado River late Tuesday (7/7/09), overwhelming the Hot Sulphur springs water system and temporarily shutting it down. Turbidity was 60 times worse than the murkiest spring runoff conditions, but improved considerably by the next day. On Wednesday, water trucks arrived with potable water from Granby to keep the water system going. Hopefully, the water plant will be up and running today (Thursday). Thank you to everyone who respected the emergency watering restrictions!

It is a good thing that construction on the new water system is in the works! When the new ARRA system is in place, Hot Sulphur Springs could shut down the water plant for 2 or more days and still have dependable water in the two tanks.

100% Plans are Submitted to Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment

We met our deadline to submit a completed application with detailed drawings and design specifications and Environmental Assessment to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). This completed an 8-week whirlwind effort including public meetings, site mapping and surveys, numerous engineering meetings and many hours from our dedicated team of engineers, surveyors, town and environmental planners, attorneys, and staff. Our submittal was made to CDPHE early, of course, with a comfortable 40 minutes to spare before the drop-dead deadline. We were working up to the 11th hour on peripheral issues such as floodplain mapping and plumbing details. Thank you team for a job well done!

Our ARRA stimulus project immediately triggered work in Grand County and Denver:

Hot Sulphur Springs Stimulus Project Generating Local Work:

• Town of Hot Sulphur Springs – hired new water-treatment-plant operator to support new construction efforts.
• Tim Shenk Land Surveying of Granby – surveying water treatment plant site and water tank site, also FEMA 100-year-floodplain studies.
• Merrick Engineers of Aurora – design and engineering for water treatment plant (new membrane filter and replace clear well) and new water tank.
• Conservation Assistance of Grand Lake – public involvement and editing/production for environmental assessment.
• Ed Moyer of Hot Sulphur Springs – Contract town planner coordination land use and town and county masterplans.
• TopKnot Engineering of Hot Sulphur Springs – Engineering design for water intake structure, guidance on town utilities.
• Grand County Title and Escrow – Property ownership patterns and title commitments.
• Kumar and Associates of Fraser – Geotechnical investigation of water tank site.
• Paper Clip of Granby – Office supplies, report production, and secretarial support for project management.
• Frye Business Services and Systems of Fraser – Project organization and accounting, upgrades for computer systems in Town Hall to support capital projects.
• County Seat Restaurant – Lunch meetings for planning team.
• Java Lava – Coffee, breakfast, and lunch for planning team.
• Grand Environmental Services – Project management, communications, environmental assessment, wetland delineation and permitting in waters of the US.