{"id":66526,"date":"2019-09-13T19:20:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T01:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southern-ute-indian-tribe-expands-emergency-water-storage\/"},"modified":"2019-09-14T01:20:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T01:20:02","slug":"southern-ute-indian-tribe-expands-emergency-water-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southern-ute-indian-tribe-expands-emergency-water-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern Ute Indian Tribe expands emergency water storage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Southern
Southern Ute Tribal Council members, Growth Fund officials and other community leaders throw the first shovels of dirt to launch the new settling pond project Wednesday south of Bayfield.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

SOUTHERN UTE RESERVATION \u2013 The Southern Ute Indian Tribe broke ground on a new settling pond Wednesday south of Bayfield to expand emergency capacity for the region\u2019s water system.<\/p>\n

The new settling pond will enable the Southern Ute Utilities Division to provide up to 30 days of water in emergencies. The division, administered by the Southern Ute Growth Fund, provides drinking water and sewage treatment for the tribal campus, local tribal members and the town of Ignacio. Currently, the system can provide less than one day of emergency water for users.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re truly excited to get this going,\u201d said Shane Seibel, Growth Fund executive director. \u201cIt\u2019s a long time coming, but there\u2019s a lot of steps involved to get to where we\u2019re at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Southern
Southern Ute Tribal Council members, Growth Fund officials and other community leaders break ground on a new settling pond project Wednesday south of Bayfield. The pond will expand the emergency capacity of the water system.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Southern Ute Tribal Council members, Ignacio town representatives, Growth Fund leadership, Utilities Division employees and other community members gathered at the settling pond sight for a presentation of the project, blessing of the project and land, and groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Ute people, we hold water very sacred to us. Water is the essence of life, nothing can survive without water,\u201d said Lorelei Cloud, council treasurer. \u201cCreating this water settling pond to take care of the water \u2026 is such a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

JITA Contracting Inc. in Durango and F&M Construction in Bayfield will begin digging Monday and expect to finish the settling pond project in April, said Hayes Briskey, Southern Ute Utilities Division manager.<\/p>\n

The new pond will hold 20 million gallons \u2013 enough to fill all the pools at the Durango Community Recreation Center 45 times \u2013 and be able to provide an emergency supply of water for customers for at least 20 days.<\/p>\n

\"Shane
Shane Seibel, Growth Fund executive director, speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for new settling pond project south of Bayfield.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It will work in conjunction with another settling pond the tribe has had in operation since the 1980s, Briskey said. This old pond holds 800,000 gallons of water, enough emergency storage for one day of usage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve experienced a lot of drought, including Ignacio, our neighbors,\u201d said Cheryl Frost, vice chairman of the tribal council. \u201cI\u2019m just really glad we\u2019re all here together today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Utilities Division would tap the pond if contaminants, drought or wildfires affected the river.<\/p>\n

For example, Briskey said that it was difficult to provide water for users because of the regional drought in 2018. Also, the Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002 triggered the tribe to build its water processing facilities because of the impact it had on the region\u2019s water. The settling pond would also be used if a chemical spill or toxic waste affected the Los Pinos River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need to have the capacity to provide clean, consistent water to the community is what brought this project into being,\u201d Briskey said.<\/p>\n

\"Southern
Southern Ute Tribal Council members and Shane Seibel, Growth Fund executive director, emphasized the importance of water and emergency storage at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new reservoir Wednesday south of Bayfield.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The tribe spent $3 million on the settling pond, and none of those costs are included in the utility rate structure for users, according to a June news release from the tribe. The town has been considering other water providers because of a recent rate increase<\/a> approved by the Tribal Council.<\/p>\n

Ignacio Town Trustee Sharon Craig expressed appreciation for the emergency storage project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be here,\u201d Craig said. \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to have such an amazing facility. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other council members spoke, thanking the Utilities Division staff for their work in providing water to the community and emphasizing the importance of the project and water in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate everyone\u2019s participation,\u201d Seibel said. \u201cNow the ball\u2019s in your court, as they say, for the contractor to get it done on time and under budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

add 20M gallons to capacity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66526","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=66526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66526"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}