On Monday, Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District (RMWSD) General Manager Dave Schneider announced that RMWSD was âaggressively exploring alternative options for a suitable sludge disposal site.â This announcement came on the heels of a meeting that was held last Thursday night regarding the application of Denali Water Solutions with the State of Colorado to spread sewage sludge from RMWSD lagoons on a ranch south of town. The three-hour meeting held by the Board of County Commissioners allowed all involved to get to the foundation of what Denali was proposing to do.
Schneider stated in an email to the Tribune that after feedback from the meeting, they were looking at options to ship the sludge out of the Valley, âWe are currently pursuing an option of hauling the sludge out of county and are in several discussions/negotiations to see if we can make that a reality. We should know by late Wednesday or Thursday if this is an economically feasible option.â
Custer County Commissioner Lucas Epp announced on Tuesday that the Board of County Commissioners would hold a meeting today, Thursday, April 3, at 1 p.m. to discuss options to help haul the sludge to other locations, one of which might be Yoder in eastern Colorado.
One option that had been floated by former water driller David Nequette was to take the sludge to the local landfill that he claimed had a good clay seal. While this is a good solution, Schneider stated that the timeline would not work, âUnfortunately, the County landfill option has been taken off the table as their landfill permit excludes the application of biosolids, either in liquid or cake form. The changing of that State permit is a lengthy process that would bring us out of the optimal time frame of pilot plant construction.â
The Tribune will continue to report on this story.
â Jordan Hedberg