Published 10/30/08
The Rio Arriba County Commission will decide this week whether to enter into an agreement with the state to begin a preliminary study that may lead to a community wastewater system for Tierra Amarilla.
The Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal Thursday (10/30) in Española. It would make $163,000 available for a wastewater planning and engineering study of the area. The state Finance Authority would provide 90 percent of that total as a grant, and the remaining $16,300 would take the form of a loan to the County. The County started the process last year, submitting a request for $1 million to the state Water Trust Board of which only the $163,000 was approved.
County Manager Lorenzo Valdez said the $1 million would have included the engineering report and some construction, but the Board told the County it had to complete the study before it received more funding.
In the end, the system would entail laying wastewater lines and building a sewer plant.
Valdez said he does not know how much such a system would cost. When the Tierra Amarilla Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association applied for state funds for a similar regional wastewater system in 2004, it estimated the initial cost of “professional services” such as engineering and environmental studies at $160,000 and the eventual cost of construction at $2.1 million.
Association President Silviano Atencio said the Association’s attempts to get state funding for the project starting in 2004 eventually “fizzled out.”
“We’re all for it,” Atencio said. “We do need it.”
Assistant County Manager Tomas Campos said the area’s topography would probably allow service from Escalante High School in Tierra Amarilla north to Ensenada. He said Los Ojos would probably not be part of the system because it is downhill from Tierra Amarilla.
Campos said the schools and County Jail would likely hook up to the new system. He said the jail’s current wastewater system is adequate for the jail’s population, but it is at its capacity of wastewater discharge, so the state Environmental Department has prohibited any expansion of the jail.
Department geologist Brad Reid said expansion of the jail would likely increase the volume of discharge, which would then require an expansion of the current sewage plant and a modification of the jail’s permit. The permitted daily discharge is currently 16,900 gallons per day.
Campos said the study would determine the feasibility of the system, as well as how many households and facilities would hook up to it and the project’s approximate cost.