{"id":46230,"date":"2021-06-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-altitude-sewer-plant-promises-clean-discharge-fresh-smell\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:19","slug":"high-altitude-sewer-plant-promises-clean-discharge-fresh-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-altitude-sewer-plant-promises-clean-discharge-fresh-smell\/","title":{"rendered":"High-altitude sewer plant promises clean discharge, fresh smell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Robert
Robert Ludwig, near right, wastewater operator with Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District; Kurtis Martinez, left, district wastewater operator; and Bob Reynolds, owner of Advanced Concrete Solutions, discuss construction for the district\u2019s new $7.5 million, high-altitude sewage treatment plant last week northeast of Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A La Plata County subdivision will soon have something new to brag about: a state-of-the-art wastewater system designed for high-altitude locations.<\/p>\n

Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District, about 650 homes northeast of Durango, is the first district in the United States to build the system developed in Austria. It\u2019s a $7.5 million upgrade, but district staff members expect to reap environmental and financial benefits from the system.<\/p>\n

\"Advance
Advance Concrete Solutions employees pour concrete for the state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant in the Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District. The facility will address water treatment issues tied to high-altitude environments. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be the showcase for America,\u201d said Robert Ludwig, a wastewater operator with the district. By December, it should be fully operational, he said.<\/p>\n

Wastewater facilities take sewage water, called influent, push it through multiple cleaning stages, and release the disinfected water, called effluent, into water bodies.<\/p>\n

Edgemont Ranch releases its treated water into the Florida River. The high mountain stream typically has low water flow past the facility. By that point in the river, Durango has already diverted much of the water for its purposes.<\/p>\n

With less water to dilute the treated water, Edgemont Ranch must release high-quality effluent to minimize impacts on the river.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgae was growing,\u201d Ludwig said. \u201cEven meeting the effluent limits, we could see that we were impacting the watershed. So we knew we had to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in the cold winter months, the bacteria in the wastewater treatment lagoons were less active. The bacteria drive the biological processes that break down waste material.<\/p>\n

Once the temperature falls below about 39 degrees, the biological processing shuts down, Ludwig said. The lagoons were not removing nitrogen and phosphorus in the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny biological reaction is slower in low temperatures, whether it is a \u2018bad\u2019 one like spoiling food or a \u2018good\u2019 one like wastewater treatment,\u201d said Peter Aichinger with ARAconsult, who assisted the metropolitan district.<\/p>\n

High-altitude environments come with both low temperatures and low atmospheric pressure. Low pressure makes it harder to dissolve oxygen in water for the bacteria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to breathe like we do, and it is harder for them in high altitudes like it is for us,\u201d Aichinger said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The new wastewater treatment plant at Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District will replace the open sewage lagoons, which struggle to break down waste material in the winter and minimize environmental impacts. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In 2006, Edgemont Ranch realized the facility would not meet the subdivision\u2019s long-term needs: an affordable system that minimized environmental impact and worked at high altitudes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a little gun-shy because Durango\u2019s had such a hard time starting up their new process,\u201d Ludwig said. South Durango and Mancos also had difficulty starting up processes. \u201cThey\u2019re all technologies that have been adapted from lower altitudes. We wanted something that was a mountain (wastewater) plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff members spent 10 years planning and finalizing permitting for a new facility. The district bypassed the option for a membrane biological reactor. It decided against the sequenced batch reactor used in Durango and many municipalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take a lot of energy, and they produce OK results,\u201d Ludwig said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, staff members decided to fly to Austria and Germany to visit towns using the BIOCOS wastewater processing system.<\/p>\n

The BIOCOS system, or biological combined system, was initially developed for huts and cottages high in the Alps, Aichinger said. About 200 BIOCOS plants are in use in Europe and China.<\/p>\n

The system was designed to be efficient. Typical treatment plants include complex electrical equipment and control methods, and require highly skilled personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any of the equipment fails, the whole treatment might fail, too,\u201d Aichinger said.<\/p>\n

BIOCOS uses one blower station, performing treatment tasks like aeration and pumping using an airlift. It extends the biological reaction zone to give bacteria more opportunities to break down material, getting more work done in smaller water volumes.<\/p>\n

For the metropolitan district, the system will process up to 175,000 gallons of wastewater each day. The district processes about 75,000 with its current system.<\/p>\n

Construction will take place this summer and fall before ending by December, Ludwig said.<\/p>\n

\"Steel
Steel rebar is used in the $7.5 million wastewater treatment plant. Construction is scheduled to wrap up before December. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhen a wastewater plant is operating correctly, it kind of smells like detergent,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause (these plants) process the wastewater so efficiently \u2026 they don\u2019t stink.\u201d<\/p>\n

With increased efficiency, Ludwig expected the facility\u2019s carbon footprint to decrease and electricity costs to stay steady. The district plans to treat water using a UV disinfection system instead of chlorine to help keep the river clean, he said.<\/p>\n

In the future, the facility can also be used for power production, Ludwig said. Biogas, produced when anaerobic bacteria break down waste material, can be used as fuel or to produce electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be able to protect the environment,\u201d Ludwig said. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about how healthy it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Subdivision installs state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly wastewater treatment system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,360,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-technology-general","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46230","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=46230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86796,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46230\/revisions\/86796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46230"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}