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A Bit of a Stink about Hot Water, Part Three |
Bill Hudson | 7/2/08
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Read Part One
A friend of mine, who is a regular reader of the Post, suggested to me yesterday that I needed to think carefully about the personal opinions that might creep into an investigative article series such as this one about the proposed lease of Pagosa Springs' geothermal resource. He suggested that mixing facts with supposition could be damaging to the ongoing negotiations between the Town Council and the Springs Resort.
I should stick to reporting the facts, he said, and think carefully about Pagosa’s future as I decide what to include in my future article installments.
“The Springs Resort is the heart of downtown, and it's going to be the heart of Pagosa’s future,” he suggested.
 That is a hard prediction to argue with. When Clarissa and I arrived in Pagosa in 1993, the Springs Resort was still the Spring Inn, a modest motel with two little fiberglass hot tubs available for soaking. The motel had recently been purchased by builder and designer Matt Mees, and his partner Bill Dawson, and they had big plans for the Spring Inn. Fifteen years later, under Matt’s guidance, the Spring Resort has been transformed from a modest motel into a full-blown resort destination. Their high-quality website at pagosahotsprings.com accurately represents the luxury and service available at the resort, and a recent marketing video says the facilities “compare favorably with the finest European spas.” I have never been to a European spa, but I certainly wouldn’t argue with that claim.
According to the resort website:
“The source of these mineral-rich waters is the famous Great Pagosa Aquifer...the world's largest and deepest hot mineral spring. Sunset Magazine featured The Springs Resort as one of their "Heavenly Hot Springs" in November 2003. THE TRAVEL CHANNEL included the resort in its feature "America's Very Best--Riverwalks" in April 2004. Pool temperatures range from 83 - 114 degrees (F). Visitors from around the globe have journeyed to these waters over the centuries to experience their legendary curative powers."
“Today's travelers come to relax in these ancient healing waters after a vigorous day of skiing at Wolf Creek Ski Area, backpacking in the San Juan Mountains, golfing around The Four Corners or simply to relieve the tensions and stresses of everyday life.”
Back in the early 90s, the Spring Inn had very reasonably-priced annual passes available, and Clarissa and I would often meet with some of our new friends in the Overlook Pool, “soaking away the stresses of everyday life” and discussing the likelihood that Pagosa Springs would one day become a healing center with a national, or even international, reputation. Sitting in Matt Mees’ new, artistically-designed pools, absorbing the heat and minerals from the Great Pagosa Aquifer, it was easy to imagine big things awaiting Pagosa in the coming years.
Pagosa’s future seemed abundant, and bright. as we soaked in those new bathing pools.
Now the Springs Resort has new owners — the Whittingtons — although Mees continues to oversee the building of new hot springs pools, including five currently under construction overlooking the San Juan River. I had a lengthy conversation with Mees on Monday, about the history of the resort, the Great Pagosa Aquifer and the current negotiations between the Town and the Springs Resort. We touched on the existing mineral water lease, delivering up to 200 gallons per minute of "waste water" from the Town’s PS-5 well to the resort.
A related development at the Springs Resort is a planned $250 million expansion, one of the few development projects that seem serious about proceeding in the painfully slow business climate that has settled over Pagosa Springs since 2005. With seemingly a quarter of our downtown properties vacant — either as empty lots or as vacant shops for rent — the thought of a vigorous development project is very appealing to those looking for a turn-around in the local economy.
So I have to think over what my friend has suggested. What is my purpose in writing about the questions facing the Town and the Springs Resort, as they negotiate a possible new lease? How do those negotiations bear on the stalled San Juan River Restoration project? How are the negotiations related to the as-yet-unsigned lease between the Town and businessman Jeff Greer, in the middle of constructing his new spa downtown next door to Jackish Drug?
What are the “facts?”
Another friend reminded me at last night’s Town Council meeting, of an old Western proverb: “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” Certainly, the numerous lengthy lawsuits that have surrounded the development of the Great Pagosa Aquifer since the Town drilled its new PS-5 well in 1980 bear out that proverb. Where water rights are concerned, the “facts” seem to be open for discussion — and disagreement.
In a public work session on June 19 with the Town Council, Springs Resort Bill Whittington apologized for any apparent confusion surrounding the proposed new lease for additional mineral water from the Town.
“I was just assuming that the [Town] staff had made you guys aware of whatever this lease is — or isn’t — and they talk about attorneys in this other letter. And I assume you guys had been informed by your attorney what this does, or doesn’t mean. Again, I apologize, because I thought you were aware of the lease and the option on the lease — and we’re not asking for anything that hasn’t already been pretty well agreed to in the lease.”
“Again, this is water that you guys utilize, and it goes right into the river. It’s waste water to you all — and us, we can use it. It makes sense to do the project that we are trying to do there in the $250 million range. The tax base will be phenomenal to the city once that is completed.”
As noted in earlier articles in this series, Whittington’s characterization of the mineral water lease as providing “waste water” from the Town is not entirely accurate. The Springs Resort is asking for 400 gallons per minute (gpm) from the Town’s geothermal well, During the coldest months of the winter — December, January and February — the Town sometimes pumps 400gpm though its heat exchangers, and could therefore provide 400gpm of actual “waste water.” During the fall and spring, the Town more typically pumps around 200gpm, according to Town records. During the warmer season, from about May until October, the Town does not run any water at all through its heat exchangers.
But the Springs Resort’s proposed lease asks for 400gpm, all year round. If the Town’s records are correct, then, only about 40 percent of the water delivered to the resort would be “waste water.”
Following Whittington’s presentation, Councilor Jerry Jackson asked his fellow Council members, “Is there anyone on the Council who is opposed to this [lease]?” There were no objections. “Then I guess, if in our next regular meeting, we say we are for it, then we can just have our attorneys work out the details.”
Interim Town Manager Tamra Allen then asked Jackson, “Can I get some clarification, just exactly what ‘for it’ means?”
Jackson chuckled. “Yes, ‘for it.’ For giving the Springs Resort our, quote, waste water. They would pick up any additional cost for transporting it [over the river].
Then Mayor Ross Aragon opened up the discussion to public comment. “I just want to be really emphatic about this, that I want public participation, and I want to open it up to public comment. I think it’s imperative that there’s dialog. I don’t want to come put of this meeting and be blind-sided by anyone saying they never had a chance to speak.”
A member of the audience came to the microphone and asked if the Town could explain how they would be leasing “waste water” to the resort during the summer months — under a water right that allows only “municipal use associated with geothermal heating” — when in fact the Town does no geothermal heating during the summer.
Whittington said he could explain the seeming discrepancy. “The Town uses the geothermal water to heat the downtown businesses and so forth. And when the Town shuts that system off, then [the Springs Resort] uses that same water; it doesn’t go through the heat exchangers, it just comes directly out of there to us. So it’s a year-round usage on the water. In the winter, you are getting your BTUs out of it first, and in the summer, you are not actually using it, so we just pump it directly across [to the resort].”
Allen clarified the situation further. “My understanding from the Town’s water attorney is that we can legally lease the water during the summer. It’s my understanding that the Springs Resort’s attorney is working with the Division of Water Resources to understand how much, in gallons per minutes, they can use during the summer season.”
Whittington repeated that the Town’s attorney, Janice Sheftel, has determined that the Town was “well within its rights” to lease the water to the resort during the summer months.
“We do have some new water commissioners who weren’t aware of how that worked,” Whittington explained, “and some inquiries were made, and they made some inquiries, but I think everyone is back on the same page now.”
Whittington may have been referring to a letter, sent from newly appointed Division 7 Water Commissioner Pete Kasper to the Town of Pagosa Springs on May 13, 2008.
That letter states in part, “The Town was granted a water right for [wells] PS-3 and PS-5 for municipal heating from a geothermal resource as defined in SB 481, adopted in 1981. The State does not allow any water right holder to waste water. In the May 19, 1987 judgment and decree issued to the Town for PS-3 and PS-5, this is stated very clearly in item #17, which states, ‘The Town of Pagosa Springs shall operate its wells… to avoid waste of the geothermal resource.’ Therefore, it is the opinion of this office the Town should not be operating wells PS-3 or PS-5 unless it is producing geothermal heat with its heat exchanger.”
Read Part Four |
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