{"id":25028,"date":"2024-11-05T10:13:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T17:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/millions-of-dollars-available-for-community-driven-projects\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:07:48","slug":"millions-of-dollars-available-for-community-driven-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/millions-of-dollars-available-for-community-driven-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions of dollars available for \u2018community-driven\u2019 projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A slide from the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s slide deck explaining the Community Change Grants.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Cortez Sanitation District hopes to secure a grant that could bring tens of millions of dollars to the area to upgrade its again sanitation infrastructure.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the city\u2019s sewer district is over 50 years old.<\/p>\n

Lines are deteriorating, well past their useful life, said Jan Nelson, manager of the Cortez Sanitation District.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently made phosphorous and nitrogen regulations stricter, forcing sanitation districts statewide to pivot and remove more of those nutrients by 2027, Nelson said.<\/p>\n

Without the grant, \u201cbills will triple\u201d to afford those changes, rising from the monthly $48 people pay now to an estimated $120, Nelson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all over Colorado,\u201d said Nelson. \u201cRates will have to go up significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, for years now, the district has been in contact with Vista Verde Village, a mobile home park in Cortez that has its own unreliable lagoon wastewater treatment system.<\/p>\n

\u201cLagoons are very labor intensive. It takes a higher level of skill to operate them successfully, but since they are normally located at smaller facilities, they generally can\u2019t afford to hire that level of operator,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n

So they\u2019ve been discussing the possibility of connecting the park to the city\u2019s sewer system, a project with \u201cdaunting\u201d costs, Nelson said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the grant comes in.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s roughly $2 billion of grant money up for grabs nationwide to fund projects that are \u201ccommunity-driven\u201d and \u201cimplement meaningful solutions\u201d to \u201covercome longstanding environmental challenges,\u201d as the grant reads.<\/p>\n

According to the EPA, \u201csanitation and wastewater treatment is crucial for environmental and public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore, \u201cwe feel it\u2019s a qualifying project,\u201d said Tod Phinney, the senior vice president at Souder, Miller & Associates, an engineering consulting firm working with the sanitation district on this project.<\/p>\n

The grant money stems from Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act, which ultimately helped make \u201cthe largest investment in environmental and climate justice in U.S. history\u201d when it gave $2.8 billion to the EPA, according to the grant.<\/p>\n

Most of that money \u2013 $2 billion \u2013 will be awarded as community change grants.<\/p>\n

The Cortez Sanitation District is hoping to secure anywhere from $10 to $20 million of that money. It\u2019s \u201chighly unusual,\u201d but the award doesn\u2019t require any matching funds, Nelson said.<\/p>\n

To be eligible, applicants must be from \u201cdisadvantaged communities,\u201d involve the community in crafting a solution-oriented environmental-related project, and partner with a local nonprofit.<\/p>\n

The south side of Cortez qualifies as a \u201cdisadvantaged community,\u201d according to the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool<\/a>, which is a nationwide map of such communities.<\/p>\n

\"The
The shaded gray area is considered \u201cdisadvantaged,\u201d according to the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The sanitation district also partnered with Region 9 Economic Development District, a local nonprofit, to meet that final requirement.<\/p>\n

Region 9 will be doing the outreach work, said Shak Powers, its regional projects manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (the project) needs to have community input and be community driven,\u201d Powers said.<\/p>\n

To get that input, there will be an event on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at the Cortez Sanitation District, 2908 S. Broadway St. It\u2019s open to the public and starts at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Refreshments will be provided. Souder, Miller & Associates and sanitation district officials will be there to provide technical details, Powers said.<\/p>\n

Powers also recommended the creation of an advisory board, made up of Vista Verde residents, people from the south side of Cortez, the engineering firm and sanitation district staff to make sure the community is on board and informed every step of the way.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d also like to hook up Elegant Hills Park & Estates, another mobile home park in Cortez, to the city\u2019s system, but they\u2019re outside of the shaded, \u201cdisadvantaged\u201d area.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re considered \u201cpartially\u201d disadvantaged, however, so there might be a work around, Powers said.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, the Cortez Sanitation District hopes to secure this grant money so it can replace its aging infrastructure with new, larger pipes. The current pipes \u2013 besides being old \u2013 don\u2019t have the capacity needed to connect Vista Verde to the city\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

Capacity also becomes a concern as the city\u2019s population grows.<\/p>\n

The sanitation district would additionally like to incorporate solar energy into its plant; there\u2019s a lot they could do with the grant money, but first they need to talk to the community and turn in the grant by Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s millions, if not tens of millions of dollars. For a disadvantaged community, that\u2019s not just a drop in the bucket,\u201d Phinney said.<\/p>\n