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Tangled Waters, Part One |
Bill Hudson | 7/7/08
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At their regular monthly meeting last Tuesday, July 1, the Pagosa Springs Town Council found themselves trying to untangle two big — and seemingly independent — water issues that have somehow become dependent upon one another as a result of ongoing negotiations with the Springs Resort.
 The Springs Resort has been leasing the so-called “waste water” from the Town’s municipal geothermal heating system since 1995, with the current lease dating from 1997. Recently, the resort proposed that the Town increase its delivery of geothermal mineral water from 200 gallons per minute (200gpm) to “400gpm or the full extent of the Town’s maximum usage.”
That issue has become tangled up with the Town’s controversial “river restoration” plan — a plan to remove and relocate numerous grant-funded “Fishing is Fun” structures added to the San Juan River thirteen years ago by noted hydrologist Dave Rosgen, and build a “white water park” as designed three years ago by engineer Gary Lacy of Recreational Engineering and Planning (REP).
The first structure designed by REP — the so-called “Davey Wave” — caused a three year dispute with the Army Corps of Engineers, and its functionality was seriously questioned at last month’s Town work session by hydrologist Rosgen. Click here to read the Post article on Rosgen's presentation. Continued...
The rafting and boating water feature known as the "Davey Wave" has proven popular with all ages as a recreational hot spot in the normally mild-mannered downtown section of the San Juan River. Now the Town is planning to relocate the feature, following a request from the nearby Springs Resort.
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Before it can move ahead with any more river work, the Town is being asked to remove the Davey Wave. That fact, and other issues surrounding the REP plan have caused at least one Town Council member to ask for further study. At Tuesday’s meeting, Town Councilor Mark Weiler referred to Rosgen’s criticism of Lacy’s white water park designs.
“Based on the presentation that we had from Mr. Rosgen at our last meeting, I have some serious confidence issues about the people who have provided the plans for the river restoration kayak park,” Weiler told the Council, choosing his words carefully. “In doing a little bit of research, it appears to me that [REP] did not give good council to the Town or to the Town Manager about the process we were engaged in, and they should have known the ramifications of what they were suggesting we do as a town.
"I would like to review their agreement and investigate the outcome of severing our relationship with them — and starting this process anew with people who have had success in dealing with the regulatory agencies we’ll have to deal with in order to get this project approved.”
Going back to square one on the river restoration project — which, considering Pagosa’s unstable financial situation, might mean the death of that project — might also have ramifications for the Springs Resort negotiations, since the resort’s representative Bill Whittington is holding out promises of river easements as part of its negotiating package.
At least one of those easements relates to the white water park — and might become moot if the river restoration plan is changed.
As noted in my earlier Post series on the geothermal leases, the key negotiators for the Springs Resort, Whittington and Matt Mees, have assured the Town that the increased water delivery will not significantly impact the Great Pagosa Spring Aquifer, the mineral water source that appears to lie mainly beneath Pagosa’s downtown area and which feeds several active wells and springs owned by various parties.
Dangling in the midst of these two tangled water issues is a Planned Unit Development (PUD) by the Springs Resort — a $250 million expansion project stretching from the resort itself south to the Pagosa Springs Community Center, and including nearly the entire travertine meadow between Hot Springs Boulevard and the curving San Juan River as it heads west and then south out of town.
Apparently, Springs Resort representative Bill Whittington wants a blank check from the Town — in regards to his Planned Unit Development (PUD) and also in regards to future water rights sought by the resort — in exchange for several easements that would allow, among other things, the continuation of the REP white water park project.
Although Weiler apparently wants the kayak park to go back to the drawing board with a new designer such as Rosgen, the current REP plan apparently has its supporters on the Council.
“I wasn’t at the meeting when Rosgen spoke,” noted Councilor Angela Atkinson, “but I would like to give Gary Lacy the opportunity to respond [to Rosgen’s criticisms]. I think it would have been only fair to have them both in the same room, to understand what the allegations are and to allow them to respond. We sent out an RFP [in 2004] and Rosgen got the RFP and didn’t respond to the request — so to start all over has ramifications, and I think we need to understand those ramifications in terms of the entire public process that we went through, and the time that people invested and that this Council supported at that time.”
“So before we jump to severing the relationship, I would like to have in writing what the allegations are. I would like to allow Gary Lacy to respond, and then I would like us to think through the costs and benefits of starting the process over again.”
Atkinson’s comments about the public process are noteworthy perhaps, because to my knowledge, the Town had only very limited input from the general public before sending out the RFP to which Lacy responded. My sense from interviews with former Town Manager Mark Garcia back in 2005 was that Garcia and a small group of white water enthusiasts had essentially chosen Recreational Engineering and Planning before even sending out the RFPs, that Rosgen had in fact responded but his ideas had not agreed with the small group’s pre-conceived plans, and that the general public had been given very little notice or chance to give input before the plan was approved by the Town Council.
In fact, looking through old Town Council minutes, I have been unable to find any evidence that the Council ever approved the Lacy plans, nor a specific budget for the project. To my knowledge, the Town has never publicly announced how much money it has already spent on the white water park planning.
Following the installation of the Davey Wave — which the Town did without the proper Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) permits, and without the permission of the Colorado Division of Wildlife which had funded the Rosgen structures — Garcia and Lacy became embroiled in a three year negotiation with the ACOE, and the Lacy plans were redrawn to better align with the ACOE requirements. As I understand it, part of the revision process included a proposal to relocate the Rosgen “Fishing is Fun” structures farther downstream, to make room for white water structures in the downtown stretch.
But in order to relocate those structures, the Town needs to get property owner approvals to grant them easements along the river that would allow fishermen access to the structures. The Town already obtained such easements when the original structures were placed thirteen years ago; now they would need a whole new set of easements.
So far the Town has not obtained any of those needed easements.
And one of the property owners from whom they need easements is the Springs Resort — with their own long list of requests to negotiate. The Springs Resort is also offering easements for, and assistance with, other planned Town projects.
How badly does the Town want to build this controversial kayak park downtown? What would they be willing to give up to the Springs Resort, to support a river project — which, to my knowledge, has never had widespread public support?
And how much, exactly, is the Springs Resort asking for, in exchange for easements?
Part Two tomorrow… |
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