Our Picture of Health 1998:
Focusing on Community Health to the Year 2000CHAPTER 8: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
WATER
72. Water and Wastewater Quality and Compliance
Editor's note: While we have tried to make every indicator in this report easy to grasp with the aid of a chart or graph, water is one issue that cannot be so readily explained.
The following report was compiled with the help of staff from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as well as the City of Grand Junction. A special thank you for their time in compiling such a thorough look at this very critical issue.
Introduction
Water and wastewater quality and compliance is an important issue for the community to consider in measuring its health.
Overall, Mesa County has a safe and plentiful supply of drinking water and wastewater capacity for all of its citizens. Waste is diluted by the high flow on the Colorado River. There are issues of concern that are being addressed by public agencies and private citizens.
Drinking Water
There are many suppliers of drinking water in Mesa County. There are full-service, public municipal-type suppliers such as the Town of Palisade, the City of Grand Junction, the Ute Water Conservancy District, the Clifton Water District, the Town of Collbran and the Town of De Beque.
The City of Fruita at one time supplied its citizens with drinking water and now contracts with the Ute Water Conservancy District for this service.
There are also a number of private suppliers, such as the Bruner Water Company in the Rosevale area, Reed Mesa Water Company on the Redlands, and the Purdy Mesa Livestock Water Company in the Kannah Creek area.
Growth of rural subdivisions outside of established service areas creates new demands for safe drinking water. The development or delivery of safe supplies is tied to the overall growth policies of Mesa County.
In general, the municipal-type water suppliers work to upgrade facilities and capacity.
The Ute Water Conservancy District, for example, is currently completing plans to install a new water transmission line from the Plateau Valley to their treatment plant on Rapid Creek. The line will provide sufficient supplies of water well into the next century.
The Clifton Water Treatment plant has completed construction of a nano-filtration plant to reduce total dissolved solids from their Colorado River water supplies.
The City of Grand Junction continues to upgrade its water rights decrees for eventual use by citizens in the Grand Valley. There are current water supply contracts between the City of Grand Junction and the Clifton Water District for mutual supply in times of shortages.
Palisade and Ute have mutual water supply contracts.
The City of Grand Junction, Ute Water and the Clifton Water District have connections among their three systems to ensure adequate supply in times of need.
Private water supply systems are, by their nature, marginal. Required to meet the same drinking water standards as the larger municipal water suppliers, their capacity to serve is hampered by their small customer base, the age of their systems, and their financial ability to upgrade their facilities to meet changing requirements.
The Bruner Water Company, for example, provides artesian water to 200 customers in the Rosevale area on the west side of the Colorado River near the Redlands. The Company has experienced an increase in water consumption since the Rosevale area was sewered. Their ability to increase flow is hampered by the small line sizes of their distribution system. They may not have the financial capability to upgrade their distribution system to meet City fire protection requirements.
The increasing standards for drinking water, the monitoring expenses and capital requirements may result in most of the small water companies being acquired by larger organizations.
There are isolated pockets of concern. Glade Park west of Grand Junction is supplied primarily by individual wells. As growth continues, the drawdown of wells will create problems. There are some Glade Park residents who take drinking water supplies from taps off the old Fruita water line and the Fruita Reservoirs. Long-term there is a need for residents using the Fruita pipeline to install point-of-entry filtration devices on individual homes. These POE devices are not completely effective in reducing turbidity to meet safe drinking water standards. Centralized treatment may be the only answer.
The Kannah Creek area is another rural area close to Grand Junction being affected by people's desire to get out of the city and into a rural environment. Several companies in the Kannah Creek area supply drinking water to a limited number of customers.
These companies are affected by some of the same problems beset by the Bruner Company as mentioned above: small customer base, high water rates, limited financial capacity to expand service and to upgrade facilities. There are on-going needs to improve drinking water supplies in De Beque, Mesa, and Collbran as growth continues.
Waste Water
The Persigo Wastewater Treatment plant treats sewage from throughout the urbanized area of central Mesa County. Sewage flows from several special sanitation districts and from areas inside and outside of the city limits of Grand Junction. The plant was constructed in 1984 and meets all discharge standards to the Colorado River as permitted by the State of Colorado. As with any biological treatment facility, there have been minor upsets at the plant. Storm water inflows and infiltration are problems currently being examined by the city.
Sanitation districts in the central part of the Grand Valley do not treat their sewage but maintain their own collection systems. Sewage is transported to the Persigo plant via interceptors. The exception to this is Clifton Sanitation Districts #1 and #2, which collect and treats wastewater in a lagoon system near 32 Road and the Colorado River. The Clifton system has capacity and is meeting discharge standards.
The Panorama Improvement District collects and treats water for the Panorama area on the Redlands. Sewage is treated in a lagoon system and then returned to the Colorado River. The Panorama system is in compliance with its discharge permit. It may eventually connect to the Persigo plant as discharge standards increase.
Septic Systems
The 2,100 individual septic disposal systems in the Grand Valley create the largest threat to adequate sewage treatment and disposal in the Mesa County urbanized area. The Redlands area, for example, has 1,600 septic systems, most of which are between 20 and 40 years old. A growing number fail each year, with no piped sewage collection systems available. To retrofit an existing subdivision with sewage collection lines will run $5,000-$8,000 per household. Most residents can not afford this cost.
However, the biggest problem with individual septic systems is that they do not fail all at once. What results, then, is a person seeking an individual solution for a neighborhood problemÑa problem that can only be financed jointly with other property owners. The City of Grand Junction and Mesa County are exploring ways to provide financing mechanisms to deal with this problem.
Throughout the County there are continuing isolated problems that are gradually being addressed. The failure of the Valle Vista subdivision lagoon system was remedied by the inclusion of the Valle Vista system into the Orchard Mesa Sanitation District.
Powderhorn Ski Area is looking to expand its lagoon system to treat its peak winter discharges. Kings View Estates near Fruita abandoned its individual system recently and is connected to the Fruita sewage system. The Scenic School system is connected to the city sewer system, as is the Coors Porcelain plant.
Throughout the developed portions of the urban area, there are locations of abandoned underground gasoline tanks left over from previous eras. Many of these tank sites have been identified and remediated. However, some may remain. On occasion there are identified sources of contaminated ground water that require attention.
Storm Water
"Non-point source" pollution from surface flows are attracting attention nationwide. Runoff from federal lands, irrigated farm lands and urban storm runoff are all features of the water landscape in Mesa County. Storm-water discharges are under review by staff of both Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction. Mesa County is not currently required to meet federal storm-water discharge standards.
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