Example of Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) wastewater treatment faciity.
- Not intended to suggest this is the design of a future Rico CO wastewater plant.

image source:
Rico Trustees Meeting Packet
February 15, 2024
Ore Cart edits:
reduced image size
and moved title

by Allyn Svoboda
Publisher

Contents

1. Town Trustees approve next step for wastewater collection system design
2. Preliminary Engineering Report year-end 2023
3. Cost
   

1. Town Trustees approve next step for wastewater system design

Engineers from consulting and design company Bohannan Huston (BH) described the next step in the process to obtain external funding for a wastewater collection and treatment system at the Rico Board of Trustees regular monthly meeting April 16, 2025, 7:00 PM at Town Hall.

An excerpt from the Meeting Packet describes the history of wastewater system design work.

This design work will build upon prior phases completed over the past couple of years under Task Order No. 1 (Preliminary Engineering Report) and Task Order No. 2 (Environmental Information Document).

Under Task Order No. 3, Bohannan Huston will provide engineering services for the design of the wastewater treatment and collection system. The scope of Task Order No. 3 includes:

• project management
• site data acquisition
• coordination for required permits through CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The engineering design phase includes construction documents for a new membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater treatment plant, and a supporting collection system consisting of approximately 27,400 linear feet of gravity sewer, 2,000 linear feet of force main, and three lift stations. Design deliverables will be provided in four key milestones—30%, 60%, 90%, and 100%—to ensure timely review and alignment with Town and regulatory requirements.

The total cost for services under Task Order No. 3 would be $1,580,190, and will be funded with the portion of the Town's Congressionally Directed Spending that was awarded in 2021 which will require the approval of a non-competitive grant application.

note:
above quoted section -
paragraph breaks and bullets
added by Ore Cart

- - -

Rico's previous Town Manager submitted applications for the Rico central sewer project funding to Colorado Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper in 2021. The Rico project was approved for $2.5 million, but final engineering and construction bids had not been obtained.

Bohannan Huston representative Donzil Worthington explained that the Task Order No. 3 design will make the wastewater project "shovel ready," and that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "has been very supportive of this project."

An audience member asked about wastewater collection system excavation conflicting with or disturbing Atlantic Richfield lead soils contamination remediation road work. Worthington advised that coordinating with AR will be part of the design. He described factors such as "low side of the street," slope/grade, and depth of trench.

Another audience member described the Rico Geothermal Coalition project to design thermal energy network to distribute geothermal well water throughout town for heating buildings, and the potential cost-saving of thermal distribution pipes "joint-use" of wastewater trenches. Both pipe systems could be installed in the same trench.

2. Preliminary Engineering Report year-end 2023

a) funding opportunities
b) treatment facility location
c) recommended treatment method
d) collection system design
e) construction phases

BH Representatives described the Task Order No. 1 Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) at a Rico Board of Trustees worksession February 15, 2024. The 303-page final PER was submitted December 21, 2023 in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bulletin 1780-2 format. Details of the worksession are described below.

Engineering design consultants described results of the Town of Rico's proposed wastewater treatment and collection system Preliminary Engineering Report at a Town Board of Trustees workshop - February 15, 2024. Image is a streaming video screen capture.

a) funding opportunities

BH assisted Rico Town Manager with:

• Congressional Directed Spending - $2.5 million already in place.
• Meeting with USDA Program Director
• Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) working with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)
• Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) support
• U.S. Senator Bennett's office

more info
Colorado CDHPE Revolving Loan Fund
United States Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water State Revolving Fund

. . .

b) treatment facility location

Considerations for the proposed wastewater treatment facility location site selection included:

• previous site assessents
• land ownership
• winter access
• proximity to Town facilities
• maximization of gravity flow
• proximity to Dolores River

Source for illustrations in this section:
Town of Rico wastewater system
Preliminary Engineering Report (PER)
December 21, 2023

Figure 1 Proposed wastewater treatment site with associated equipment highlighted in light-blue boxes. Public Works Facility (Town Shop) had not been constructed yet and is shown as "Planned" in yellow box. Existing Town Shop has been demolished and removed. A San Miguel Power Association 3-phase distribution powerline parallels S. Picker St and is not shown on map.

Ore Cart edits:
added "color boxes"

. . .

c) recommended treatment method

Analysis of wastewater treatment options in the PER recommends membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) technology. Advantages and disadvantages of this treatment option are:

Advantages

• most compact footprint
• highest quality effluent
• robust/forgiving biology
• best setup for future effluent limits

Disadvantages

• higher operations and maintenance (O&M) costs
• barrier separation of effluent from solids

. . .

d) collection system design features

• gravity flow
• 8-inch pipe minimum
• manholes spaced 500 feet apart
• prefabricated lift stations
• force mains are smaller size

Figure 2 Profile drawing of proposed wastewater line showing elevations and distances, gravity and force main segments, Dolores River "Jack and Bore crossing," and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) site. Total distance of this line is about 4200 feet.

. . .

e) construction phases

Map below describes proposed Rico wastewater collection system construction phases, location of force main segments where wastewater must be pumped uphill, and lift stations pumps at beginning of force main segments.

Figure 3 Proposed Rico wastewater collection pipes construction phases from Preliminary Engineering Report. Phase 1 is not enclosed by a colored line boundary and is not labeled.

Ore Cart edits:
"phase" and "neighborhood" labels,
light-blue underliness

CROSSINGS AND LIFT STATIONS

3 river crossings

• Dolores - 1
• Silver Creek - 2
  

2 force main segements and lift stations

• Piedmont south to West Rico
• Silverglance

7 Jack and Bore crossings

• Dolores River - 1
• Silver Creek - 2
• Hwy 145 (Glasgow Ave) - 4

3. Cost

The December 2023 preliminary engineering report prepared by BH produced an estimated wastewater treatment system Capital Costs ("plant") total cost of $22.9 million. Annual Operations and Maintenance (O&M) expense estimate $222,374. See charts below.

next 2 charts source:
Town of Rico wastewater system Preliminary Engineering Review - December 21, 2023.
Ore Cart edits converted the original one chart to two charts.

Figure 4 (above)

Figure 5 (above)

- - -

Figure 6 Rico proposed wastewater system Phase 1 cost includes a treatment facility and collection system consisiting of buried pipelines. Total is $16.6 million. See Fig. 3 map above.

Ore Cart chart

Figure 7 Rico proposed wastewater system Phases 1, 2 and 3 costs. Total is $22.9 million. Phase 2 and 3 colors in chart are same as corresponding phase labels and outlines in Fig. 3 map above.

Ore Cart chart

Town of Rico distributes 291 water bills monthly, according to a recent count provided to Ore Cart by Rico Town Clerk Anna Wolf. Number of "Active" water accounts consuming water is 230.

Ore Cart related

> navigate to top of this page
> adjacent to the date, tap/click on Wastewater for a list of reports

SUBSCRIBE
to Rico Ore Cart
new reports announcements

enter email address below