Tim Pierce, of Mustang Water, told the Forum last week that “to be quite blunt, Mustang Water is at its limit with the existing system.” He said one further upgrade can be made to add a membrane filtration module, however. Still, challenges loom.
This last summer, Nucla had to go on a rotation for raw water irrigation. That’s because more water was being used, on top of the ongoing drought. Another factor to consider is that Naturita doesn’t have raw water; Naturita uses treated water for summer irrigation, which creates more demand on the system.
Now, Pierce said, throw in the 80-100 additional users with the newly-purchased Rimrock Hotel to be filled at capacity, and the system will definitely be stretched next summer.
Pierce said the $75,000 upgrade can be done, and that’s in the budget already. He said, though, he’d like to see Merrimac Ventures, the new owner of the Rimrock Hotel, help with subsidies. After all, their hotel workforce will create strain. If the hotel group won’t subsidize the upgrade, Pierce is formulating a surcharge for Naturita, that the town can then pass onto the Rimrock Hotel.
But what if man camps are indeed established in the West End as part of Merrimac’s housing plan?
“That is beyond reasonable, without serious and significant upgrades to many systems, not just Mustang Water,” Pierce said.
He added if another 250 people come to the West End, that’s about two-thirds of the population of Naturita increasing. This also affects the reservoir, and capacity needs to be looked at. It’s something he’s tried to talk to commissioners about the last few years. He said expanding the reservoir and establishing additional water rights are things that Commissioner Sean Pond has supported, and so did former Commissioner Scott Mijares, who was just recalled. Pierce said the water issues are important, and he’s not sure the new board will collectively make this a priority.
The filing and paperwork has to be kept up, something he said the last board — Keith Caddy, Roger Rash and Sue Hansen — opted not to do. According to Pierce, they didn’t see a need.
Enter hundreds of Mountain Village construction workers and hotel employees, and Pierce said the West End’s water storage and water rights should’ve been priority.
“It puts us in a hard spot for water issues,” he said.
Like other small towns in rural America, the West End has aging water infrastructure. This includes the 50-year-old main line, made of concrete-asbestos, that runs from the treatment plant to 2900 Road. That line needs investigated, scoped, so that officials can determine its condition and if it needs replaced. To complicate matters, service lines have been run off that main line. Pierce said a new line, though, could be installed, and Just Transition funds could support that and benefit the whole system.
Overall, he’s worried about Naturita and Nucla becoming bedroom communities to support the east end of San Miguel County. He said Merrimac thought they were doing right by workforce housing, but they really should’ve come to the West End first and proposed a facility, instead of buying the West End’s only hotel and also doing the same in Ridgway.
“We could’ve worked on it,” he said, “and done it with a partnership attitude.”
As Mustang Water reacts to what’s happening now, Pierce said he further hopes the West End Vision Project, and all the work that’s gone into its planning with discussions and more, doesn’t get destroyed by all the sudden changes.
