Glacier View gets grant to update water treatment

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

Mountain water engineering circa 1970 will soon catch up to the new millennium when Glacier View Meadows subdivision west of Livermore completes modernization of an antiquated community water system.

At present, all three community wastewater leach fields in Glacier View have reached or soon will reach capacity limits set by the county and state, according to Steve Horsman, general manager for the subdivision. Larimer County Health Department is allowing GVM two to three years to correct the situation, he said.

In June, the GVM Water and Sewer Board received a $15,000 grant that will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the association to hire a qualified engineering firm to plan and design a centralized treatment plant. The plant needs sufficient capacity to manage ultimate build-out of all lots using the community water-treatment system, Horsman said.

The grant, which required approval by the county health department and county commissioners, will be administered by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Horsman said. In mid-October, the design contract was awarded to Stantec Consulting, one of six engineering firms that offered bids on the project.

There are 168 lots, out of a total 950 in the subdivision, in the area served by the deteriorating community system, Horsman said. Those lots receive treated well water and return gray water back into leach fields, he said. Solid waste is collected in holding tanks on each lot, and residents are responsible for their maintenance.

Horsman estimated water treatment plant upgrade costs at $500,000, based somewhat on the new sewage and solid waste treatment plant recently installed at Magic Sky Girl Scout Ranch in Red Feather Lakes. The goal, said Horsman, is to discharge water back into the environment that is as pure as when it came into the system.

One of the key factors in awarding the preliminary planning grant to Stantec Consulting is the company's proven ability to obtain outside funding for projects such as this in the form of loans and grants, Horsman said. Other avenues for funding, he said, might be from the State Rural Improvement Revolving Loan Fund or a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for wastewater treatment. "If we needed to get a loan it would be long-term, 20 to 40 years," he said.

Another possibility, Horsman said, would be to create a local improvement district, which could provide the leverage needed to attract other money, even without charging a mill levy.

If needed, the association might make a special water and sewer board assessment, which the board can authorize without a general vote. That avenue, however, would require early and informed communication with residents to be fair, Horsman stressed.

He said the water and sewer board has reserves, but it was not expecting to have to drill and engineer a new well to correct a high uranium content found in one of the community wells.

In December 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set standards for uranium in drinking water at 30 micrograms per liter (ug/L). Subsequent testing in 2005 on the association's five community water treatment points confirmed four tested under 10 ug/L for uranium while the fifth tested at 150 ug/L.

Horsman said the state health department required a correction of that water supply by July 2007. In late September, a new well testing at 14 ug/L for uranium was put online, 10 months ahead of schedule.

To cut costs, the association staff, in conjunction with the water and sewer board, carried out the design engineering and installation in-house, savings residents about $65,000. Only drilling and the services of a professional engineer to approve the system were contracted out, Horsman said.

Gary Ellerman, chief of operations for GVM, said one goal of the newly installed well was to create a failsafe design so that gravity feed will continue to provide water pressure to the system in case of an electrical interruption of any duration.