December 18, 2007--City's plan would redirect sewage outflow (Durango Herald)
In a no-discussion action, Durango city councilors took the first step in early December to redirect the outflow of the city's sewage-treatment plant into the Animas River farther downstream. Although the discharge from the plant has been treated to remove contaminants, city officials want to make sure the water being sucked into a new reservoir southwest of Durango stays clean. Starting in 2011, the reservoir will store drinking water for American Indian tribes and other water users in Colorado - including Durango - and New Mexico. "A water-quality study recommended that the sewage-discharge line be relocated downstream to keep total phosphate levels in the reservoir down," according to Barry Longwell, deputy construction engineer on the Animas-La Plata Project of which the reservoir is part. "Phosphate is a nutrient, and a high nutrient load results in algae growth." Heavy growth of algae creates a water-quality problem because algae consumes a lot of oxygen, Longwell said. The reservoir at Ridges Basin has acapacity of 120,000 acre-feet of water. Filling is scheduled to begin in2009 and take two years to complete.
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