|  |
 |
|
Funny Smelling Water Facts, Part Five |
Bill Hudson | 12/5/08
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Read Part One
Following the presentation by Springs Resort representative, Durango attorney Jim Anesi, Pagosa Springs Mayor Ross Aragon opened the meeting to public comment.
 I suppose there are many reasons why a Mayor of a small town might open a Town Council discussion about a precious geothermal water resource to public comment. A Mayor might feel, for example, that the public — which includes business owners who might be seriously impacted by the Town Council’s decisions — has legitimate questions and comments about the best way for the community to utilize its limited resources, and that the Town Council will make better decisions as a result of hearing these public comments and questions. This reason falls into the “many heads are better than one” category.
Or a Mayor might sense that his own Town Council — for political reasons — is unable to itself ask certain questions, or make certain comments. Maybe the members of the Council are themselves business owners, and maybe they have been contracted by the Springs Resort to perform various services, for example. And so the Mayor might allow the public to offer the questions and comments that the Council itself is hesitant to offer.
Or a Mayor might open the meeting to public comment simply so the Council can say, later on, “Hey, we listened to the public comments — but it had no effect on our decision.”
As I have noted earlier in this article series, when the Council and the audience heard the water usage figures presented by attorney Anesi at last month’s geothermal lease discussion, it was the very first time the Springs Resort has ever offered any estimates of its current water usage — or its future water needs. I use the word “estimates” because, as the Resort openly admits, it has no water meters on any of its geothermal water pipes — so these estimates are necessarily just that: estimates.
The totals given to us by Anesi were:
- 521 GPM for the operation of the bathing pools
- 250 GPM for the operation of the new 29-room hotel when it comes online in April 2009
- About 300 GPM “to heat the sidewalks and all the other things they do, snowmelt and all of that…”
That come to about 1,071 GPM that Anesi said would be needed by the Resort, come April.
Anesi also referred to two estimates of geothermal water rights owned by the Pagosa Springs Resort Company — an amount which Anesi said was “effectively” available from the Great Pagosa Hot Springs — about 725 GPM — and the total 1,800 GPM mentioned by Bootjack Management representative David Smith, which Anesi seemingly disputed but then concluded curiously, “Gross-wise, I won’t argue with you.”
Neither the Town Council nor the public had ever before heard these claims presented by the Springs Resort in a public meeting, even though the Town and the Springs Resort have been conducting private negotiations about the publicly-owned geothermal water rights for at least six months — and even though the Springs Resort has been using the Town’s water resource year-round since 1997.
One might assume that the Town Council would have a few questions about these new claims — after leasing 200 GPM to the Resort for 11 years, and now being asked to double the amount of that lease, for a 50-year term — but in fact, no one on the Council asked any at the meeting.
Fortunately, Mayor Ross Aragon allowed the public to ask its own questions.
As a Town resident, and as a reporter with a sense of curiosity, I decided to ask a few questions and offer a few comments, following those offered by David Smith and Spa Motel owner Marsha Preuit.
I first wanted to be clear that I understood the totals, since I’d heard them now for the first time. I also wanted to know how Anesi’s claim of 1,071 GPM compared to the amount of water used by Preuit’s Spa Motel. Preuit, who I understand has water meters installed on her pipes and whose meter usage is checked by the Colorado Division of Water Resources, said her entire operation — swimming pool, bathing pools, domestic water heating, sidewalk melting, the whole shebang — uses about 100 GPM. I happen to have an independent report that verifies that amount.
Anesi was seated at the table behind the podium, next to former Springs Resort owner Matt Mees — the person most knowledgeable about the Resort’s water system since he installed the vast bulk of it. Anesi had earlier noted that the amount of water rights granted to the Resort from the Great Pagosa Hot Springs was greater than it had been originally, because the Resort had applied for additional rights within the past ten years. This was the first time I had heard this comment in six months of public meetings, and I was curious about it.
What is the possibility that — instead of asking the Town for a 50-year lease of its municipal geothermal water rights — the Resort could simply apply for additional water rights from the Great Springs?
Apparently, that would pose a problem.
“Well, first, we’d have to find it, and then we’d have to file on it,” Anesi explained.
What did he mean, they’d have to “find it”? Wasn’t the water just sitting there in the Great Hot Springs, waiting to be used?
“We’d have to prove that [the Great Hot Springs] has more water,” Anesi explained. “We only have a decree on it for a foot and a half [725 GPM]. If that’s all that’s there, then that’s all that’s there. The Town’s well is for 450 GPM; that’s all there is, they can’t get any more. So if that’s all there is in the Great Hot Springs, that’s all there is.”
But the Great Hot Springs pulls from the same aquifer as the Town’s PS-5 well, doesn’t it?
“Well, we don’t know that. I don’t know that I agree with that. I don’t know the hydrology. All these wells are different.”
In fact, the Town of Pagosa Springs did considerable testing during the 1980 construction of its municipal geothermal heating system. At least three separate tests were conducted, from what I can tell, and the results indicated that all the downtown springs and wells were pulling from the same aquifer. Apparently, Anesi was not familiar with those studies.
So the Resort is willing to ask the Town for additional water, but hesitant to apply for its own additional water rights?
There are several good reasons why the Resort might not wish to apply for additional water from the Great Hot Springs. For one thing, additional studies might show that, in fact, there is no more water available from the aquifer. This would pose serious problems to the Resort’s planned expansion project. Marsha Preuit has asked the Town Council repeatedly to conduct additional studies of the aquifer before agreeing to a 50-year lease, but so far the Council has shown no interest in accommodating her request.
For another thing, an application for additional water rights would open up the whole community-wide useage of geothermal water to legal inspection. The Resort might not want the courts to look too closely at how our community is using its geothermal resource.
At this point, Mayor Aragon recognized Council Mark Weiler, who apparently had a problem with my line of questioning.
“Your basic assumption is incorrect,” Weiler told me. They're not leasing our water, they’re leasing our waste water, after we’ve used it. We’re not giving up our water rights, we are maintaining them. What they want to lease is what we throw away.”
We are throwing away 400 GPM even during the summer months, when the municipal heating system is not operational?
“All year long,” Weiler answered. “Go over there and look.”
The Town throws away water in the summer?
“I believe we do. Yes. Go over and look. Their filing is on our waste water, not on our water right. That’s where this gets all confused. What they’ve filed on is what we throw away. Your basic statement is fundamentally incorrect.”
I turned to Springs Resort representative Matt Mees, the person most familiar with the Resort’s water usage.
“Matt, are you, according to your current lease, allowed to use water during the summer months that has not been used by the Town?”
“We are using water, year round, in a heating capacity,” Mees answered.
“But according to your current lease, are you allowed to use water during the summer months, that the Town has never used?”
“It all goes through their heating system,” Mees offered.
“But if the Town itself has never used the geothermal water for any heating purpose, are you still allowed to use the water?”
“We can only get the water after it physically goes through their heating system. It's physically connected to their heating system.” Mees continued.
“It’s whatever the Town discharges,” Anesi added helpfully.
I continued to try and get a real answer. “So you can, in fact, use what the Town runs through its heating system during the summer. So the Town hasn’t actually used the water for anything?”
“It’s in a heating system,” Mees said.
“Yes, it’s in a heating system. But the Town is not actually heating anything?”
“They are heating all of the stuff that you see over here [at the Springs Resort],” Matt explained.
“So the Town isn’t heating anything. They are running the water through their heating system, so that you [the Springs Resort] can use it?”
Attorney Anesi jumped in to help out. “They are leasing it for a municipal purpose. They are making revenue off the heating water. I mean, it’s a revenue source for them. Whether it’s summer or winter.”
Mees added, “It’s no different from anyone downtown who is running their water through a heating system. It’s just a heating system. We just happen to heat 12 months out of the year.”
If we listen closely to the language Mees and Anesi were using to avoid answering my questions, we may be hearing a careful attempt to justify what might be an illegal lease of the Town’s geothermal water.
“It’s just a heating system…”
“They are leasing it for a municipal purpose…”
“We are using water, year round, in a heating capacity...”
Is there any legal difference between “a municipal heating system” and a bunch of outdoor mineral pools used for recreational bathing?
At the Town’s October discussion of the Resort’s proposed geothermal lease, Mayor Ross Aragon assured everyone:
“I just want to point out that, if we have done anything illegal, please — take us to court. I contacted our attorney today, and we have done nothing illegal. That’s according to our attorney. We have done nothing illegal and that’s the bottom line…
“Whenever you have a $250 million development [like the proposed Springs Resort expansion] you have to be out of your mind not to — you have to listen to that. And we have listened to that.
“But the bottom line is, we haven’t done anything illegal. If we are harming anyone in any way, tell us.”
In Part Six, we will take a look at just how the term “illegal” might very well be applied to the proposed geothermal lease — and why, perhaps, the Town Council might want to look the other way.
Read Part Six |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|