{"id":24028,"date":"2025-01-15T00:34:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T07:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-water-rates-will-increase-to-bolster-infrastructure-improvements\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:47:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:00","slug":"dolores-water-rates-will-increase-to-bolster-infrastructure-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-water-rates-will-increase-to-bolster-infrastructure-improvements\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores water rates will increase to bolster infrastructure improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Flyer
Flyer detailing Dolores\u2019 second of a six-phase water project in town. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At the end of January, Dolores residents will pay an extra $10 on their monthly water bills to help support the town\u2019s water project.<\/p>\n

For residents in town, that translates to a new bill of $50.52 a month; for those outside of town, that\u2019s $67.54.<\/p>\n

Right now, Dolores is in the second of a six-phase water project that\u2019ll take about 20 years and $4.3 million to complete, said Dolores Town Manager Leigh Reeves.<\/p>\n

Of that, $400,000 is for design, and \u201cDOLA gave us $200,000 for that purpose,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennett has pledged $750,000 for the project, and the town will apply for a $1 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and another $1 million grant from the state\u2019s Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

The town will pay for the rest with a low-interest loan, Reeves said.<\/p>\n

The first phase of the project put new main waterlines under the highway, and this next phase will run new, 8-inch pipes alongside the existing 4-inch pipes, as \u201cit\u2019s easier to lay new lines than to replace the old lines,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n

The existing pipes in town are not only small, they\u2019re also aged: Some of them are 74 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s older than me,\u201d Reeves said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Plus, in the past 10 months, the existing pipes have leaked twice.<\/p>\n

They usually leak on Fourth Street, though a few have leaked on Sixth in the past, and once on 17th, Reeves said.<\/p>\n

This second phase of the project, then, will make for a more \u201cconsistent supply (of water), fewer outages, increased efficiency and improved fire flow,\u201d according to a flyer detailing the project and placed inside Dolores residents\u2019 mailboxes.<\/p>\n

Phase III, which will happen a few years from now, will be to install a new water tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town will have a different feel, even if it\u2019s all underground,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019ll go up $10 a month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,28,29,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78366,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24028\/revisions\/78366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24028"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}