Round Mountain Water Progress
Projects and Accomplishments

by Fred Hernandez
A meeting with Round Mountain District Manager Dave Schneider was convened on March 3, 2025, to receive an update on the
status of some of their ongoing projects. For an hour and a half Dave, in esoteric and highly technical language, explained the details of Round Mountain’s various projects. In the interest of quicker understanding for non-experts and general clarity of the information we translated, as best we could, the complex narrative into readily acceptable layman’s terms:
Project #1 Water Meters
All the “ancient” water meters have been replaced. The new system (AMI), Advanced Metering Infrastructure, utilizes Ultrasonic Smart Meters. This state of the art, high technology meter “communicates” hourly to the computers at the office of Round Mountain and to the cell phones of their team members transmitting from the AT&T tower close to the Sheriff’s Office. The metering system is monitored and managed with software known as Aquahawk. With this powerful combination of high-tech equipment Round Mountain receives critical information heretofore not available including such amazing details as the volume of water flowing through each tap in the network, how fast or how slow the water is flowing, the temperature of the water and it will send an alert if there is an uptick in the flow or no flow at all. It is now possible to save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, an achievement not possible in the past. As an example, when snowbirds are absent from their homes and a leak occurs there was no way to tell until the end of the month when the meter was read and by that time a great volume of water was lost. With this new equipment, the office is alerted within the hour. Only a handful of counties in the state are this well equipped. This is quite an accomplishment by Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District.
Project #2 Wastewater
Project Number Two which is currently on the table, is the ongoing work to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant to meet state standards. The cost of the state’s requirements was prohibitive, and District Manager Dave Schneider went shopping for something more affordable. From a company called Powell Water Systems, Inc. with forty years experience in water treatment he learned of the ElectroCoagulation System which he presented to the state. The whole approval process which went on for quite a while was an uphill battle with the state and with the Department of
Local Affairs who would provide he grants for this project if it was to be implemented. The electrocoagulation system has been used in the mining and oil industries for a long time. The problem is that there were only a couple of waste treatment facilities that were using it and that was not enough to convince the State of Colorado to approve the innovative technology.
Over time, however, through sheer determination and hard work Round Mountain (RMWSPD) made progress with the state and with DOLA and are now on the verge of implementing a pilot project funded with DOLA grants and a company called EPIC (Environmental Policy Innovation Center). No funds from RM will be used in the pilot program. This is about to be approved by CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Updates will be issued as progress is made.
Project #3 – The Reservoir
Project Number Three is a state mandated requirement from the Colorado Division of Water Resources for Round Mountain to build a reservoir. There is much history and many details that have led to this requirement by the state.
In the interest of space we will get to the point directly. Over a number of years Round Mountain has used water that they were technically not entitled to. It was for this reason that they had to purchase the Johnson Ranch to help in the augmentation plan.
At this point it has been determined that a reservoir be
built to continue in the assistance to the augmentation plan. The site is about one mile south of the town of Westcliffe near the Gallery well, a Round Mountain property. The design of the reservoir is now ready for approval by the state. The total cost of this project is about three and a half million dollars of which seventy five percent is already funded. One of the partners in this venture is the Upper Arkansas River Conservancy with Round Mountain owning two thirds of the venture. The reservoir will occupy approximately nine acres of land and this project is scheduled to break ground in
the summer.
Finally, Round Mountain has a parcel of land about forty acres
on which they are currently discharging treated residual sludge. As soon as the waste-water treatment plant is fully operational the plan is to tie up with a solar company to use the land for a solar farm and thus create a new income stream for the district.
The Round Mountain Water and Sanitation District has made significant progress in recent months and promises to be on target to meet all their short and medium term goals.