The town of Rico is aiming to develop an adequate waste-water treatment system in order to accommodate projected growth in the region, said Eric Heil, Rico’s Town manager and attorney, in an interview last week.

Responding to a March water-quality report that put Rico’s predicted economic boom and its inadequate sewer capacity as a potential threat to the Dolores River watershed, Heil said that the small mountain community, which sits just a few miles from the river’s headwaters, is working hard to deal with the problem.

"Basically we are dealing with a mining town that was laid out over 100 years ago without much regard for waste-water treatment, plus the town was basically a near-ghost town for about 25 years after the mining bust," Heil said. "And with such a small tax base, it is a challenge to find the money to catch up with infrastructure, but we will get there."

A waste-water facility plan for the town, completed in January as a prerequisite for obtaining federal and state grants for infrastructure improvement, analyzed Rico’s existing systems, some of which are antiquated, open cesspool-type septics; studied the town’s future sewer needs; and evaluated several different types of treatment systems. Currently each business and private residence in Rico operates on an individual septic system.

The $26,000 study, prepared by the Denver engineering firm of Rothberg, Tamburini and Windsor, recommended a Rotating Biological Contactor treatment system with a price tag (factoring in available grants) of between $1.2 million and $1.6 million, according to the report. The system would allow residents and businesses to hook up to the system, with tap fees in the $3,500-to-$5,000 range.

But that’s too much money to ask Rico’s 160 or so year round residents to ante up for the service, Heil said, and would saddle the town with annual debt service payments of between $73,000 and $97,000.

Rico’s projected general-fund budget for 2000 is $80,000.

That system’s price tag prompted the town board of trustees to seek a scaled-back, more affordable system. Last month, the board planned to retain Mike Hannigan of KIS Engineering in Durango to design a re-circulating sand filter system to serve the main street business district initially, with full-size collection lines running down the alleyways. As much as 80 percent of the $750,000 price tag could be paid for with grants doled out by the state’s Department of Health and Department of Local Affairs.

Rico is given the highest rank of immediate need and existing health hazard by the state department of health, and is 23rd on a list of 60 communities with waste-water treatment funding needs, according to the Rico Town Hall’s March newsletter.

"The Western Slope rumor-mill that Rico is the worst polluter of the river really concerns me, because it has been getting better, and these old cess-pool systems are slowly getting replaced with state-approved and engineered septics," Heil said.

"I want people to understand that we are studying a sewer system, and I realize that when you look at a map we are the one pocket of private property that is probably the biggest question mark of what will happen on the upper Dolores River. But this scaled-back, Main Street system is a good start that can be expanded to reach residences, and it could be in by next summer, depending on the town’s willingness to pay for it."