The Towns of Nucla and Naturita held a meeting together Aug. 5 at the Nucla Community Center for the purpose of beginning the process of establishing a source water protection plan through Colorado Rural Water Association (CRWA). Stakeholders were invited to participate.
CRWA said in a news release that source water protection is a “voluntary, non-regulatory, proactive approach to preventing the accidental pollution of groundwater and surface water that serve as sources of drinking water.” CRWA’s role is to work with public water systems and their communities in the development of plans that are aimed to protect those drinking water supplies.
Gabriel Matta, USDA source water specialist, led the meeting. He presented an overview of what a source water protection plan looks like and does and gave an introduction to water sources and systems — in this case, the San Miguel River and Mustang Water.
Matta acknowledged that Naturita has a population of 585 people; Nucla, 875.
He said establishing a source water protection plan really is about just that: protecting safe drinking water, avoiding risks of contamination and also subsequent clean-ups. He added that communities who participate in creating such a plan with CRWA receive a $5,000 grant from the state’s department of Public Health and Environment.
Part of the process includes prioritizing potential contaminations, using a matrix that rates things from low to severe in terms of threat. Additionally, a delineation map is created to show the watershed boundary, and then the plan looks at sources of contamination within that.
Matta said the next local meeting, held Aug. 26, will focus on potential sources of contamination, and participants should bring those when they attend. Matta did acknowledge that the Nucla community has been battling the Bucktail Fire. He said wildfire is an important thing to look at in Colorado, as it relates to source water, and maybe the first thing to consider.
He also spoke about risks of spills upon the highway, as well as risks that above or below-ground storage tanks pose. Also to consider are things like weed abatement (spraying of noxious weeds), mining, plus oil and gas development.
Matta said the potential sources of contamination can be used as information for future development, for engineers or construction crews, to prevent disaster.
CRWA’s services are free to the towns of Nucla and Naturita. So will be education, cameras and signage in the future, after the source water protection plan is in place.
The next community meeting, Aug. 26, is on a Monday at 6 p.m. Then, the delineation map will be discussed, as well as the possible sources of contamination and risk levels. Jackson Reagan, state source water specialist, said in the meeting that he wants to discuss assistance for wildfire. He said proactivity is important, and that for every $1 communities spend in wildfire prevention, they save $4. Reagan will be collecting and formatting data for local communities in the future.
Justin Musser, of Montrose County Ecological Services, asked about drought, and if that should be considered for source water protection. He also asked if stakeholders upstream, like those in San Miguel County, should be included in the process, because they affect the water in West End communities. Musser also applauded the work of Adrian Bergere, program coordinator for the San Miguel Watershed Coalition.
