{"id":57459,"date":"2013-09-04T20:56:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-05T02:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcphee-ramp-to-lose-flush-toilets\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:08:38","slug":"mcphee-ramp-to-lose-flush-toilets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcphee-ramp-to-lose-flush-toilets\/","title":{"rendered":"McPhee ramp to lose flush toilets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Forest Service is planning to tear down the bathrooms and fish cleaning station at McPhee Reservoir and replace the flush toilets and sinks with vault toilets.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally installed nearly 30 years ago when the McPhee dam was constructed, the main boat ramp\u2019s restrooms use pumps to transport sewage up a steep hill to a treatment system located at a campground above the lake.<\/p>\n

USFS District Ranger Derek Padilla said the pumps\u2019 age, combined with recent pumping difficulties, renders replacement of the restrooms a necessity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPumping has not been going well,\u201d said Padilla. \u201cThe pumps are no longer in production, so when something breaks, it is difficult to repair it. Because of the age of the system, there is potential for a critical failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were a critical failure to occur, there is a chance that raw sewage could find its way to the reservoir.<\/p>\n

To avoid such a situation, the Forest Service is planning to install vault toilets similar to those found at many area campgrounds. While the new toilets would not use running water and therefore not be flushable, Padilla is confident that users would not be negatively affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that users will see any bad effects,\u201d said Padilla. \u201cEvery so often, depending on the system, there might be a distasteful odor. For the most part, though, this occurs only on an occasional basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the Forest Service does not see any negative effects arising from the new system, some lake users are not convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go the lake and you don\u2019t have a nice place to go the bathroom, it\u2019s not good,\u201d said local fisherman Mike Carver. \u201cIt\u2019s better to have something that is nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of disappointing that they would be doing that,\u201d said Joe Stevens, a Cortez BassMasters member and avid fisherman. \u201cThere are a tremendous number of retired people who use that thing all the time. It\u2019s definitely going to affect the older people. For whatever it\u2019s worth, it sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another potentially negative aspect of the project involves the loss of the facility\u2019s fish cleaning station. Although the station has not been functional for a few years, many fishermen lament its loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to clean fish down on the boat ramp,\u201d said Stevens. \u201cThere will be guts in the water and on the ramp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many lake users appear to be content with the new setup, however, citing the fact that having restrooms in place, flush or not, is the most important thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlush toilets are a constant maintenance issue,\u201d said Dolores town manager, Ryan Mahoney. \u201cWhile we would all like to have nice shiny flush toilets, the most important thing is having something in place to keep people from defecating in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the restrooms at McPhee\u2019s main boat ramp currently remain standing, the Forest Service plans to remove them sometime in mid-October. Depending on the weather, the new vault toilets will be installed either in the fall or early spring.<\/p>\n

According to Padilla, the project will be use Forest Service funds, as well as funding left over from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.<\/p>\n

imaclaren@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forest Service is planning to tear down the bathrooms and fish cleaning station at McPhee Reservoir and replace the flush toilets and sinks with vault toilets.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal Originally installed nearly 30 years ago when the McPhee dam was constructed, the main boat ramp\u2019s restrooms use pumps to transport sewage up a steep hill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,280,549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-57459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mcphee-reservoir","tag-united-states-forest-service"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57459","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=57459"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63010,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57459\/revisions\/63010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57459"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=57459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}