Because of an enforcement order issued by the state, the Town of Dove Creek soon will be getting its water from a new source.
That decision has led to a price increase that made some town residents so angry that the Town Hall has closed because of threats to staff.
On Wednesday, the town board voted unanimously to begin switching from the Dolores Water Conservancy District to Montezuma Water Company as its water source on July 13.
The town has entered into a five-year contract with Montezuma Water, they said.
Rich Landreth, the water operator responsible in charge for the town, told the board that in about two months the town should have better-quality water and should be released from the enforcement order by year’s end.
That order was issued by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in March of last year because levels of the contaminant total trihalomethanes (called TTHMs) exceeded the maximum allowed.
The town commissioned an engineering report, which evaluated four alternatives, one of which was connecting to Montezuma Water Company’s distribution system.
“Montezuma Water Company is a member-owned, not-for-profit drinking-water provider that supplies clean healthy drinking water to more the 5,000 members, over 3 counties in Southwest Colorado,” according to its website.
The town chose that alternative and in February of this year, the CDPHE gave initial approval to that plan, according to a recap Mayor Grant Allen gave to the town board on Wednesday.
Montezuma Water uses chloramines instead of chlorine to treat its water. Those chloramines result in lower levels of TTHMs, according to a letter Allen wrote to town residents and posted on social media on June 13.
“Based on the information available at the time, the Montezuma Water option was recommended by the engineers,” Allen wrote. “The report stated that Montezuma Water uses chloramines, which have a longer residual and are less reactive with organic compounds, resulting in lower TTHM levels.”
KSJD could not reach Allen for comment.
Decades ago, Dove Creek purchased water from the Dolores Project. It has since been receiving its water, via DWCD, from McPhee Reservoir through a canal.
Much of the water supply is used for irrigation, but some is treated for use in the town of Dove Creek, which has about 700 residents.
The canal water would usually be shut off in October, and by then the town would have filled a 100-acre-foot reservoir that sits near the town’s water-treatment plant. That water would supply the town through the winter.
This year, however, the water is going to be shut off in August because of the ongoing drought. This isn’t the first time that’s happened. In 2021, the canal was shut down in July, leading the DWCD to deliver some emergency water down the canal in the fall of that year.
“The Montezuma option also appeared to improve year-round water reliability,” Allen wrote in his letter. “The report notes that Dove Creek has experienced water supply challenges during drought years and during the off-season of the Dove Creek Canal, and that connecting to Montezuma Water would help resolve those seasonal supply issues by providing a reliable year-round water supply That was the information in front of the Town when the alternative was selected and submitted to the State as the path to correct the drinking water compliance problem.”
But water from Montezuma Water Company is more expensive than the DWCD water.
The water and sewer system in the town operates as an enterprise system, meaning it has to raise enough money to pay for its operation. The switchover to Montezuma Water has triggered a price hike for users in Dove Creek.
“It was significant,” Landreth told KSJD by phone. “People aren’t real happy.”
Landreth said that the town’s water and sewer enterprises would have been taking a loss if the rates had not been raised.
In addition to paying the higher water costs, he said, the town still has to maintain the distribution system, replacing valves and sections that go bad, doing regular testing, and so on, Landreth said.
“Water and sewer rates have become the central issue facing our community,” Allen wrote in his letter. “I understand why. These increases affect every household, every business, every renter, every property owner, and every fixed-income resident in town. There is no easy way to ask people to pay more for an essential service.”
The original engineering report evaluated the cost to the town at a rate that was far too low, Allen wrote in his letter.
“This does not mean the original decision was made carelessly or without analysis. The Town made the decision based on the engineering report, the compliance deadline, and the information available at that time. But it does mean the cost of the chosen alternative changed significantly after the Town had already moved forward with it.
“That is one of the reasons the rate increase has been so severe.”
Allen said the town is pursuing grants, loans, and outside funding. He said he’s open to hearing people’s suggestions about alternatives, but there would be major complications to abandoning the water and sewer enterprises.
“The Town does not have extra water and sewer revenue to spend somewhere else,” he wrote. “These rates are intended to pay the actual costs of operating the systems. If those costs decrease, I cannot imagine a member of this Board who would not gladly support lowering rates. I hope we are able to do that as we get better numbers after the Montezuma connection is fully in place and we are no longer under an Enforcement Order from CDPHE. But we cannot responsibly set rates based on hope alone. We have to set them based on the cost of keeping the system operating.”
The fury that arose when residents saw their new water and sewer bills was so concerning that early in May, Town Hall was closed because of threats to staff. It still is, according to its website.
Town Manager Lorraine Hancock did not reply to an email seeking information.
In his letter to the town, Allen said, “Our staff did not create this problem. They did not issue the enforcement order. They did not create the cost of water. They did not cause decades of infrastructure and regulatory challenges to land on our doorstep all at once. They come to work, answer phones, process bills, keep records, and try to serve this community. They should not have to lock the doors of the Town Office because people cannot control themselves.”
Allen said that while filling up his father’s tractor with diesel fuel, he thought about the high price, and “it dawned on me that I highly doubt anyone went inside and screamed obscenities at the person running the cash register. I doubt anyone threatened the cashier or the business owner because the cost of diesel had gone up.”
At the town-board meeting Wednesday, Landreth said the town is starting a “burn,” which entails raising chlorine levels throughout the distribution system to take care of biofilm on the inside of pipes. That process should last about two weeks.
The chloraminated water will be released gradually into the system, replacing the other water.
The water will remain safe to use, Landreth said, but there could be intermittent releases of sediment that might discolor laundry or clog filters.
Board members agreed to use numerous methods of trying to inform town residents about the changeover, including mailings, text messages, posts on social media, information in the Pinto Bean newspaper, Nixle alerts, and hand-delivery of mailers to schools, restaurants, health clinics, businesses, churches, and the ROCK (Reaching Out to Community and Kids) organization.
