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The Ridgway Water Treatment Plant is to be located on 50 acres set back from U.S. 550. (Project 7 Water Authority)
The Ridgway Water Treatment Plant is to be located on 50 acres set back from U.S. 550. (Project 7 Water Authority)
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The water treatment authority slated to develop a backup treatment plant is rounding out planning stages as it eyes a shortlist of design contractors.
Project 7 Water Authority (Project 7) hopes to establish a shortlist of potential design teams by September, Project 7 spokesperson Miles Graham told the Montrose Daily Press.
The project team began searching for contractors in mid-July, kickstarting the permitting and design portion of the project’s timeline, which began planning in 2019.
“Right now, we’re kind of at a point where Project 7’s team — we’ve done kind of all the conceptualization that we can and we’ve added a lot of potential decisions, so we know what we like and what we don’t like, but ultimately we need to hire somebody to design and build it, and build it within our budget, to guarantee that it’s going to work,” said Rick Huggins, the project’s lead engineer.
Huggins added that the project still requires more detailed decision making.
The backup facility (the Ridgway Water Treatment Plant) is to be located on 50 acres set back from U.S. 550. The plant would add capacity in the future, to a maximum capacity of about 15 million gallons per day, amounting to a more than 40% increase in drinking water supply for the region. The plant is slated to run by 2026.
Project 7 is composed of the cities of Montrose and Delta; Town of Olathe; Tri-County Water Conservancy District; Chipeta Water District; Menoken Water District and the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. Graham noted that the plant would allow municipalities to use more of their own water, eliminating much of the water trade between entities.
“All Project 7 members own water rights in Ridgway already, so we’re not having to go out and find new water,” Graham explained, adding that members already own and access the water through exchanges with the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users.
“Those exchanges have worked great over the last 40 years, but having that direct access to water rights that our members already own is not a bad thing as water gets scarce.”
The water treatment authority is responsible for the safe drinking water of about 60,000 people in the Uncompahgre River Valley and began testing new technology for the new facility last month after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded $612,059 from its Desalination and Water Purification Research Program.
The pilot project, located at the base of the Ridgway dam, is designed to find the best water treatment for the new plant, testing out different options for softening and filtering the water. According to Graham, preliminary results are promising as the team tests two different pellet line softeners.
Graham noted that the treatment technology is common throughout Europe and southeastern U.S. states, and is becoming more widely used in Colorado where water contains harder mineral buildup, such as salt and calcium.
The treatment would be designed to eliminate water waste seen in many current filtration systems.
Although home water systems filter everything out of the water, it can waste up to 10% of water, Graham explained.
“None of us (want to see this) when water is so valuable and so important,” he said.
The treatment would bond hard minerals in the water to grains of sand that produce pellets.
“The plant in Commerce City actually has a farmer who comes and picks these up,” said Graham of the pellets, adding that the farmer uses them for chicken and beef feed.
“There’s a lot of different beneficial uses for this. So instead of wasting 10% of your water and producing a lot of sludge, this system produces a very dry pellet that can be used for good things instead of just turning it into waste. So we’re really optimistic that this technology would be feasible for the new treatment plant.”
Testing will run through the fall. The team expects to share final test results before the end of the year.
For more information on the project, visit https://bit.ly/project7water
Cassie Knust is a staff writer for the Montrose Daily Press.
Cassie Knust is a staff writer for the Montrose Daily Press.
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