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Funny Smelling Water Facts, Part Three |
Bill Hudson | 12/3/08
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Read Part One
One of the curious facts about the Springs Resort’s ongoing negotiations with the Town of Pagosa Springs to create a 50-year lease of 400 gallons per minute from the Town’s geothermal well, PS-5, has been a striking lack of information about how much water the Springs Resort currently uses, how much it projects to use as a result of its proposed $250 million expansion, and what geothermal water rights it possesses on its own.
 Another question which has been left out of the discussions — perhaps because no one knows the answer — is: How much total water is available from the Great Pagosa Hot Springs aquifer? From all the information I have been able to gather over the past year, it appears that a single aquifer supplies all of the geothermal springs and wells in the downtown Pagosa Springs area. How much water can all users pull from the aquifer, on a regular basis, before it begins to be depleted?
In previous public meetings concerning the Resort's proposed geothermal lease, the Town Council has shown a singular lack of interest in asking these questions. That was also the case during last month’s Council discussion — when not a single question from the Council dealt with any of these issues.
So I had to ask them myself.
Fortunately, the Springs Resort’s representative, Durango attorney Jim Anesi, came prepared to address at least one of these questions — in spite of the Council's seeming lack of interest.
The question was a simple one — “How much geothermal water does the Springs Resort currently use?” — but Anesi's funny smelling water facts begged additional questions. As noted, those additional questions did not come from the Council, but from myself and other members of the public.
In the state of Colorado, water is treated as a precious resource — and is allowed two distinct types of uses, consumptive and non-consumptive.
A typical non-consumptive use is residential dishwashing — the water is used to clean the dishes, but then flows into the sewer system and, after being properly treated, re-enters the Colorado river system. A common consumptive use is agricultural irrigation, which takes water from a well or stream and uses it to water crops. The water is absorbed by the crops or evaporated into the air, and does not re-enter the Colorado river system — in other words, it is consumed by its useage.
The Town of Pagosa Springs designed its municipal geothermal heating system to be non-consumptive. Water was intended to be drawn from the PS-5 well, run through a heat exchanger, and then discharged into the San Juan River — somewhat cooler bu still mineral-rich. Although the use is technically non-consumptive, it’s perhaps orth noting that the water so used is not returned into the Great Pagosa Hot Springs aquifer from whence it sprang.
Because water is a precious resource in Colorado, state law requires water users to monitor their use — whether the water is drawn from a well or from another source. This is typically done by installing some type of water meter on the user’s pipes and checking the meter regularly. The Town of Pagosa Springs, for example, uses Doppler meters on its geothermal pipes and records its usage on a regular basis, as required by law.
Unfortunately, the Springs Resort — who, according to Jim Anesi’s presentation, turns out to be by far the biggest user of geothermal water in the county — does not have any water meters installed on any of its numerous pipes. From what I can gather, this has put the Springs Resort in violation of Colorado state law — but it seems these laws are not always enforced. The Resort has promised to install meters on its pipes in the near future.
Luckily, attorney Anesi had some kind of alternate method of estimating the Springs Resort’s current useage, and didn’t need any pesky water meters to get in the way.
And this is where the funny smelling water facts started getting particularly funny.
“Bob asked me to explain to you what water we have, and what we use, and why we aren’t using all our water,” Anesi told the Council, referring to the Town’s Denver-based attorney Bob Cole.
“Our main source of water is the Great Hot Springs. We have a foot and a half of water — and I’m not good at math, but I think that converts to about 725 GPM.”
When Anesi says “a foot and a half” we assume he means “1.5 CFS (cubic feet per second).” CFS is one standard measure of water rights.
We must take Anesi on his word that he is not very good at math, because according to the records maintained by the Colorado Division of Water Resources — which took me about 5 minutes to verify — the Pagosa Springs Resort Company has combined water rights from the Great Pagosa Hot Springs of 2.1 CFS.
That actually converts to about 945 GPM — not 725 GPM.
We must remember, of course, that Anesi is a lawyer, not a mathematician. But let’s follow Anesi’s numbers anyway. He has just told the Council that the Pagosa Springs Resort Company has rights to “725 GPM” from the Great Hot Springs.
“Right now, just to heat the existing pools takes… um… this is written down somewhere… takes 521 GPM. Sometime this coming April, the Resort plans on opening its new [29 room hotel] addition. That’s going to take an additional 250 GPM. Then, to heat the sidewalks… and right away, you can see that we are already over our 725 GPM. To heat the sidewalks and all the other things they do, snowmelt and all of that, takes about another 300 GPM. So to do this thing, the way they have it planned now, they need about a 1,000 plus gallons per minute. They don’t have that. That’s why they need the 400 GPM [from the Town lease.] By April, we’ll be using all of our water, plus your water.
“You're still leasing water to us — we have that lease for another four years. So we are using everything we have. Now, there are three other springs down there, that we can’t get to — practically speaking — you’ve all seen the Master Plan? Eventually, they’re going to expand all this. Well, how are they going to make all this work? If we’re already using 1,100 GPM… well, they’re going to have to become more efficient…”
No one on the Town Council asked Anesi to clarify how he came up with these numbers. No one on the Council asked him to clarify how much water rights were available through the “other three springs down there” or explain why the Resort “can’t get to” those other springs, practically speaking — when they already have plans drawn for a $250 million expansion.
Well, let’s not ask those questions either. Instead, let’s ask Marsha Preuit, the owner of the Spa Motel geothermal facility, how much water her resort uses. Here is a map showing the Springs Resort and the Spa Motel — also known as the Spa at Pagosa Springs. As anyone can see, the Springs Resort property is somewhat larger than Spa Motel property:
When I asked Preuit — who was sitting in the audience, a few chairs away from attorney Anesi — how much water her resort uses during peak times of the year, she replied, “100 GPM.” This 100 GPM comes from two wells with substantially cooler temperatures than the Town’s PS-5 well, and supplies a swimming pool, three bathing pools, domestic hot water, and sidewalk melting and room heating through the often-chilly winter months. Preuit said they use the cooler of the two wells during the summer months — when temperatures sometimes reach into the 90s.
According to Anesi, the Springs Resort — even without the new 29-room hotel — currently uses over 8 times the amount used by the Spa Motel. For most of the year, the Springs Resort water sources are more than 20 degrees hotter than those used by the Spa Motel.
Anesi told the Council that, merely to heat the new 29-room hotel would require two and a half times what the Spa Motel uses for its entire operation. He also indicated that this crucial need would commence next April — when most buildings in Pagosa Springs are getting ready to turn on their air conditioning.
The Town Council, in its wisdom, did not ask a single question about Anesi’s numbers.
Well, what about those “three springs down there” which are far beyond any practical use? Could it really take 250 GPM — 360,000 gallons per day of 140 degree water — to heat a 29-room hotel in April? Why is the Springs Resort pumping the Town’s geothermal water into the Great Pagosa Hot Springs?
And what about that curious well permit?
Read Part Four...
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