Tiny specialized bugs may help with the expensive and rising tide of toilet flushes in rural Colorado

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Tiny specialized bugs may help with the expensive and rising tide of toilet flushes in rural Colorado

By Shanna Lewis · Mar. 5, 2024, 4:00 am



District manager Dave Schneider, at center, discusses potential solutions to update the failing lagoons at the Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District wastewater treatment facility in Westcliffe with consultants Jeff Couch at left and Scott Powell of Powell Water at right in October of 2022.

Hayfields and rugged peaks create a picturesque setting for humming machinery churning up water in three small ponds. These aerators are working to add oxygen to mud-colored wastewater slowly moving through the lagoons.

The ponds, or lagoons, are a primary element in the wastewater treatment plant at the edge of Westcliffe, a small town in the Wet Mountain Valley, about an hour west of Pueblo.

The Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District serves about 1,300 people in both Westcliffe and nearby Silver Cliff. Plumbing in about 700 homes and businesses there connects to the district’s wastewater treatment facility. ... The combined population of the two towns in the district's service area has seen some ups and downs since 1970, but is now triple what it was then.



Aerators churn up water in one of the lagoons at the Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District's wastewater treatment facility in Westcliffe (October, 2022)

"It was never meant to treat as much waste as it is," District manager Dave Schneider said. "So the treatment's been compromised."

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