Sludge-Be-Gone
Round Mountain Water’s Sludge Disposal Plan
Fertilizes Hay Fields

by George Gramlich
Early this week the Sentinel received a whole bunch of inquiries concerning a proposed sludge disposal plan for Round Mountain Water & Sanitation District’s waste treatment project. The district wants to dispose of the dry sludge from its sediment/containment ponds as fertilizer on a local ranch. The inquiries mostly regarded possible soil contamination, especially with “forever chemicals” (often referred to as PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
The issue is about disposing of the dry sludge found at the bottom of the sediment treatment ponds at Round Mountain’s waste treatment facility. The dry sludge must be removed so that the ponds can be refurbished for Round Mountain’s new revolutionary treatment process that they want to install. (The project has just been approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)). Construction of the infrastructure for the new process is tentatively scheduled for mid-summer, and if everything goes all right, the new plant could go online in the fall. (Dave Schneider, Round Mountain’s Director, is the man behind installing this low cost, low tech, electrical coagulation process. This system can process the wastewater effluent at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Dozens of other Colorado counties and municipalities are facing the same problem we are; traditional waste treatment processes, as mandated by CDPHE, are not fiscally possible for small tax based entities. Dave has worked with CDPHE for years trying to get them to approve of this new technology and he has finally got it done. (It is truly revolutionary.)
To find out the facts of the situation, we went over and talked to Dave. He said Round Mountain has contracted with a firm in Fort Lupton, Colorado, Denali Water Solutions (DWS), to dispose of the sludge. In turn, DWS has contracted with a Colorado rancher out of Pueblo, Joseph Knopf, who owns a large tract of pasture in the Valley, to dispose of the sludge on his land as it is considered outstanding fertilizer. The land Mr. Knopf will be applying the sludge to is a section of a larger lot. Mr. Knopf hays that lot.
Denali has approached Custer County Planning & Zoning with details of the plan to apply the dry sludge/fertilizer to the local hay field in the Valley. Denali has had the sludge tested for everything that Colorado and the Feds require, including PFAS chemicals. This has been done at least four times in recent months and according to Dave, the sludge has passed all the tests easily. Thus, it is good fertilizer. Denali will also comply with all state setback requirements, e.g., from water sources, buildings, roads, etc. Round Mountain is paying Denali $300,000 to dispose of the sludge at Mr. Knopf’s ranch. (The cost is very low due to the short distance to the dispersal site.) Dave said that if they can’t use Mr. Knopf’s ranch, and the sludge has to go out-of-county, the cost would skyrocket to $1.5 to $2.0 Million! Dave noted that Round Mountain does not have the money for that (not even close) and if that was the only option, the project would probably have to be canceled and Custer County would be in serious trouble with CDPHE as our current waste treatment is obsolete and out-of-compliance. This would also halt any new customers for Round Mountain.
In other words, a total disaster.
We talked to Commissioner Bill Canda about this and he was aware of it. (Bill lives near the application site.) Canda said that no Special Use Permit would be needed as it is a fertilizer application which ranchers do all the time with various companies that supply solid and liquid fertilizer to increase hay production. Bill noted that fertilizer application is a standard, non-regulated ranching/farming practice.
We will have to see how this plays out with P&Z, as the source fertilizer is a bit different than commercially prepared solid and liquid fertilizers. However, since it has been repeatedly tested and passed all standards, there shouldn’t be a problem.
The bottom line is that Round Mountain needs to use Denali, and a local ranch, to dispose of this pond sludge for it to go forward with its “last hope” waste treatment project due to the cost of having it dispersed out of county.
Folks, if we don’t get this done, we could be in big trouble financially.

Press Release from the Custer County Veteran Service Office—March 7, 2025

I wanted to take a second to introduce the new Custer County Assistant Veteran Service Officer, Cortney Shank.
Cortney is a proud Westcliffe native and a proud 21 year USAF veteran/retiree. Her career field in the US Air Force was Traffic Management Office (TMO) and she also served as a First Sergeant. Her active duty experiences have helped shape her for this role; networking and seeking out additional resources are both critical components to supporting our veterans and their families.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to not only support my community, but do it by helping those that made it possible for me to serve.” she said.
Cortney is currently trying to get through her initial state/federal training to garner access to systems, and become a fully accredited representative. Once completed, she will primarily be taking on initial intakes so [VSO Dominic Edginton] can focus more heavily on claims. Courtney will eventually start taking on claims of her own. Her office hours will be Monday and Tuesday 8 a.m.-4 p.m. by appointment, and Wednesday 8 a.m.-12 p.m (Wednesday morning is veterans coffee followed by a statewide CVSO huddle).
VSO Dominic Edginton remarked “I am grateful that the BOCC recognized the need for the additional support and I am confident that Cortney will be an amazing asset to the Custer County veterans community. “

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.

Pennies to us … Cents to you

By Dale Klingbeil

(Editor’s Note:  This is a longer version that Dale Klingbeil submitted, which, due to space constraints, we were not able to  place in the hard copy of the Sentinel.)

Maybe even common sense.  This should be part of the DOGE movement for common sense savings and the future of “cents”.

I have some experience with manufacturing and metal forming operations.  I am not a tool maker.  I am however an engineer.  I have purchased tooling for metal stamping/forming machines around the world.

I have seen many high-volume operations.  I have stood on the platforms of some of the largest presses in the United States.  In other countries I would stand on the second floor to be on the same level and the bed of the press.  This same press would be another 2 stories above me as well.

As I have watched the Denver Mint operations video online, it is obvious that the machines and systems that produce “cents” are very dated.  The numbers of cents processed per day does not calculate with the output denoted in the video.

My office used to be on the other side of the wall of a press that ran consistently at over 800 strokes per minute.   I am familiar with the rhythm.  In one part of the video the notation is that the striking process runs at 750 per minute.  This, by sound seems to be closer to my remembrance of 800 per minute.  The statement at the lead of the video provides information stating that the press runs at 14,000 per minute.  If you listen to the cycles and the rhythm this is a huge difference and seems to be miscalculated.  I could believe 1,400 cycles per minute, or if the total output was 14,000.  This is a huge difference and should be easily discerned by investigation.

The point of this writing is to bring to light the production of the penny.  Clearly changes have been made over the years in its production.  From investigation, it has been stated that a major modification was made in 1982.  The composition of the materials.  The material was changed from a high composition of copper to a high composition of zinc.  The understood composition is 97.5% zinc with a copper coating.  The price of copper has escalated in recent years and will likely continue to escalate. This material was reduced to its current level of less than 2.5%.  It is difficult to learn exactly the process for the processing of this base material.  I would seem that this material if rolled into a sheet and coiled for processing onto the stamping presses.  The video shows a 9,000 Lb. coil being loaded onto a decoiler.  By hand almost.  The video shows a person feeding the lead edge of the material into the press to begin the process.  Again, hand labor.

During the early 1940’s the penny was produced for a short period of time with steel being its major material. After WWII the penny returned to a copper material as we have come to know it.

Pennies at that time were popular in vending machines and steel vs. copper material causes issues as well.  Today, you would be looking for a long time to find a current vending machine that would take a penny.  Weight and magnetism are issues, and current materials should be available to accomplish either or both.  Elon Musk likes stainless steel.  It is very likely that a stainless steel-based material could be used in this application.  Stainless steel is far less expensive than copper.  Zinc is heavy and has properties that allow it to be more formable than stainless steel.  However, much improvement and advancements have been made in tooling and processing.

In this processing the current system used an annealing process to stress relieve the blank, (the name for the round shaped part) before it is “upset” to form a rim around the blank.  Again, this process may be eliminated with the use of more current materials and/or processing.  Annealing is another process of high energy utilization.  If removed, it could result in another cost savings measure.

The rate the design is stamped in the blank to finish-form the coin, is stated to run at 750 per minute.  A group of machines complete this feature.  As the video shows, a certain amount of scrap is produced with this process as each machine has a scrap bin sitting next to it.  Waste again.

The coins are washed during the process and treated so they do not tarnish over their life in circulation.

The coins are conveyorized and counted on their way to the bagging stations.  The finished coin is stored in containers fully loaded at some 2000 Lbs.  Again, it does appear from this video that these containers are hand loaded onto the warehouse floor in stacks of four-high.

This may seem a lot overboard for an explanation, of a penny/cent coin production.  The idea of eliminating the penny from our monetary system may seem like a simple reduction.  But the mathematical fact is that the number 1 is an integral part of our monetary system.  Mathematicians are most interested in what happens between the number, zero and one.  If you eliminate 1 then the next is 2 and that is a 200% jump in value.  It may not seem like a lot until you do it a few trillion times.  Think about this in a store that does use coins.  Who gets the difference between 1 and 2?  That is a 200% jump.  My guess is that the customer will be on the short end of that.  And of course, our government will be watching to learn how this 200% increase is accounted for.  Again, for calculation purposes, you are to divide a summary by two how does a computer figure this.  7 divided by 2 is 3.5.  Round up to 4.  This is a cost increase.  When you calculate percentages, the numbers become more difficult for the computer.  33,666 divided by 3 equals…11,222 but if the total is 33,668 and it is divided by 3, then the result is 11,222.6666666666666666666

If the computer is asked to pay this amount in three installments, then which one is going to be rounded up or down?  And again, who gets the extra penny?

This may seem absurd, but you get the idea.

Denver Mint produces all of the penny/cent coins and distributes them west of the Mississippi.  Philadelphia produces penny/cent coins also.  I addition Philadelphia has ample time to produce coins for foreign countries.  As the videos show both Philadelphia and San Fransico produce commemorative coins as well.  The additional funds produced from the commemorative coins has driven San Francisco to be exclusive in this production.

Peak production volume is stated to have been 15.4 billion coins in the Denver Mint in year 2000.  The information on the video does not state how many coins of each; cents, nickels, dimes, quarters or others were produced.

“Last year, the Mint issued over three billion pennies, according to its annual report, at a loss of about $85.3 million.”   Since the volume has dropped drastically, the logic would be to streamline the manufacturing of this coin.  One facility and improved processing and materials will bring this cost within range of acceptable cost for the historic and basic necessity of the US currency system.

Bottom line, Mark Amodei has proposed that the penny/cent minting be reviewed.  The legislation that he proposed is:

“Coin Metal Modification Authorization and cost savings Act.”

Introduced in House (04/25/2023)

 Representatives Mark Amodei (NV-02), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), and Rich McCormick (GA-7) released the following statements after reintroducing the Coin Metal Modification Authorization and Cost Savings Act of 2025 

Coin Metal Modification Authorization and Cost Savings Act of 2023

A BILL     118H2817]

To amend title 31, United States Code, to save Federal funds by authorizing changes to the composition of circulating coins, and for other purposes.

The “Schuler” presses that are currently being used could be faster and more efficient.  An idea of using rotary presses could be investigated.  The streamlining of the processing is certainly an avenue for cost savings.  The improved materials and automation of the production line is a great opportunity to reduce waste and cost.  I have personally watched different metals being stamped/pressed into one part.  With the use of “AI” the inspection and transfer to packaging has huge cost savings available.  By the way, why would we update two factories in the USA to support a reduced penny/cent usage as electronics become more in play.  Penny forever… Maybe, just to the future, but not forever!!!

This bill needs support and promotion.