Sludge Be Gone?
Good News On Sludge Drama
Looks Like a Deal Is Near
by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The Round Mountain Water & Sanitation District’s (Round Mtn) epic quest to install a groundbreaking new technology (Electrical Coagulation) system to treat its waste water has had its twists and turns over the last few years and the recent drama has been no exception.
(Round Mtn needs a new waste treatment system. Using standard current technologies to do this would be in excess of $14 million dollars. They have nowhere near this money. Round Mtn’s District Manager, Dave Schneider, discovered and has been pushing for years now to use a new methodology, electrical coagulation (EC) , to do this as it can be installed for around $5 million. It is simple, cost effective and unbelievably efficient. It truly is the wave of the future after battling with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) for years, CDPHE finally approved a full blown “pilot test” for the system. The kicker is that they have given Round Mtn only 180 days to do it. In order to use the new system, the accumulated sludge in the existing lagoon sediment ponds must be taken out for the new system to work. That sediment sludge needs to go somewhere. Round Mtn has proposed dispersing it on a ranch on the Valley floor (the Johnson Ranch) as “fertilizer”. This is a common practice around the country, however, there have been many people and groups opposing this saying it is unsafe.)
The company that Round Mountain contracted with, Denali Water Solutions, to suck up the sludge and apply it to the local ranch recently sent an email to our Planning & Zoning Department notifying them of the project. Denali considered the sludge dispersal a standard agricultural fertilizer application and thus needed no special permission to do it. News leaked out and there was an outcry from ranchers and other inhabitants of the Valley, and all over the county, that the application was dangerous and could contaminate the water system in the Valley including the streams draining the water. Critics alleged that the “forever chemicals” (aka PFAS chemicals) in the sludge would permanently damage the land.
Responding to the controversy, the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) scheduled a “town hall” meeting where Round Mtn and Denali would give their spiel, and the citizens could comment and ask questions. This took place at the Lutheran Church’s Lange Hall, Thursday, March 27, 2025. About 110 people showed up.
BOCC Chair Bill Canda prepped the peasants with the agenda and how it was going to go down. This took a bit. First up was Round Mtn’s District Manager, Dave Schneider.
Dave gave an excellent, fairly in-depth review of how Round Mtn got here, going over the entire history of the waste treatment system. Bottom line is that the State of Colorado (CDPHE) has told Round Mountain that the current system is out of compliance, and they need to put a new one in ASAP or they will be having big problems with the Colorado Deep State.
Luke Bond, from Denali, then gave a presentation on Denali and what they do. And what they want to do with the lagoon sludge. It was detailed and presented professionally. Bond stated repeatedly that this use of sludge for fertilizer is common, and they have done this in Colorado.
Bond alleged that the contaminants in the sludge are way below any safety standards levels and is completely safe to apply on hay/pasture fields.
The citizens who spoke thought otherwise. They cited a multitude of safety concerns including runoff, “forever chemicals”/PFAS contamination of the soil, property values, the smell, and “100 year floods”. They cited news reports of this process causing harm in various spots across the country. There were concerns that the small amount of acreage (approximately 80 acres) is not enough for the 1,200,000 estimated gallons of sludge that is needed to be applied. There were also questions whether the PFAS sludge test samples were correctly done or current.
Dave Nequette, a local retired water well driller, made an excellent proposal. Dave said the ground beneath the county’s landfill is a perfect place to dump the sludge due to its volcanic ash nature which makes it virtually impermeable. All that would be needed is some new pits to dump the sludge into.
Other citizens asked why not ship it out-of-county to some place approved to take it. Bond and Schneider said the cost would be prohibitive (The estimated cost to transport the sludge and apply it locally is around $300k. Schneider figures it would cost another $600k up to $1 million to ship it out-of-county.)
All the citizens said they didn’t want it here, save one. There was unanimous opposition to the idea except for one lone soul, our very own James Gilbert, who at the end of the comments section, said humans have been using human waste for fertilizer forever implying that this local application was ok.
And that was the end of Public Comment. BOCC Commissioner Lucas Epp said the landfill option is a no-go as our permit doesn’t allow biosolids. He noted other Colorado landfills do have permission to accept biosolids.
Canda then did a wrap up. There were no decisions made. Round Mtn did not commit to any course of action. The meeting took over 3 hours. There were around 25 people there at the end.
Time is an issue here. CDPHE gave Round Mtn only 180 days to construct and implement the entire huge pilot system and the clock is running. If Round Mtn can’t put this new system in, it will be in big, big trouble with the state and it will impact the growth of the two towns it serves. And very possibly their pocketbooks, not in a trivial way.
So what to do? We talked with Commissioner Canda the day after, and he is interested in asking CDPHE to modify our landfill permit to allow biosolids deposits. However, knowing the glacial pace of CDPHE, any possible positive decision could be too late. Canda will be pursuing this option hoping the emergency status of the project might get them to expedite things.
We also corresponded with Commissioner Epp. He said he is asking our landfill people to contact CDPHE to “see what kind of time frame and requirements would take place (to put) dried biosolids in the landfill”. He also thought the out-of-county sludge trucking price might be “over priced”. He asked Schneider to get firm trucking prices for hauling the sludge out of the county.
We then contacted Dave Schneider. Dave said the county landfill option “is off the table” as the landfill’s permit doesn’t allow it. Getting that changed would probably take too long. Dave said he is actively looking at various options to haul the sludge out-of-county but it is complex. (Dave noted it would take 200 trips with 6,000 gallon tanker trucks to haul the sludge.) If all out-of-county options fail, Dave said the only alternative would be in-county with the Johnson Ranch still being a possibility. Dave concurred that CDPHE might grant Round Mtn an additional six months to complete the project but the odds of that are unknown.
Update: The Sentinel received notice from Commissioner Epp that the BOCC would be holding an emergency meeting Thursday, April 3rd at 1 p.m. to consider helping Round Mtn in their effort to have the sludge moved out of the county.
We then called Dave Schneider to see what was up. Dave said that Round Mtn was very close to a “deal” with Denali on hauling the sludge to an out-of-county site. He couldn’t commit to any real details at the time but indicated that Denali made a big concession on the option of hauling the sludge out of the county. Dave also indicated that it was more than the $300k that Round Mtn had contracted to do it in-county but was very, very reasonable.
He also confirmed that the BOCC will be having a meeting Thursday to discuss helping pay Round Mtn with the increased cost.
So things are looking good. Denali made big time concession to make this happen. This is good for Denali from a public relations viewpoint and considering they are a big company with a ton of money, it is not a big bite. And kudos to the Commissioners attempting to remedy a poten-tially ugly end result. (Note: We have been told that Towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff have not offered to help with the dollars. Funny —it is their sewage.)
And thanks to the citizens who showed up at the BOCC ‘sludge meeting’ to protest the application of the sludge on hallowed Happy Valley ground. This citizen pressure was probably the primary reason why Denali came to the table with a great offer to haul the sludge out-of-county. Don’t forget too, that Dave Schneider help orchestrate this deal.
BREAKING:
Dave Schneider just sent us an update on press day:
“The amended quote details from Denali are still being negotiated into a contract amendment with them. I can report that RMWSD has requested $40,000 from the Custer County Commissioners to help defray the additional trucking costs needed to export the sludge to an approved land application site located in another county. RMWSD and its constituents will bear the remainder of the additional shipping costs. The finalization of the Denali Contract is contingent upon the County Commissioners approval of our request at their meeting at 1 p.m. on Thursday the 3rd and full contract details will be available at the RMWSD board’s emergency meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday the 4th.”
Let’s hope this deal comes through. We will keep you posted.
