On July 7, the board of the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID), which also sits as the Pagosa Springs Town Council, heard an update from Interim Public Works Director Phil Bennett on the town’s ongoing sewer improvement project.
Town Manager David Harris also introduced the board to the town’s new Public Works director, Nick Freeland.
Harris explained that Freeland “comes to us” from working as a contractor on the “Vista Plant upgrades, and prior to that he has an extensive background in military and aviation engineering and is a graduate of Texas Tech and grew up in the Dallas area.”
Freeland then addressed the board, saying that he and his family moved to Pagosa in “April of last year,” and had “originally planned to move on to Salida, once my job here concluded, but we loved this community so much that we decided to stay here.”
He explained he started his new position with the town “yesterday,” and knows there are issues with the wastewater system that will need to be addressed “in the near future.”
“I’m excited to get started and to meet everyone and help benefit this community as much as I can,” he said.
Harris explained that Bennett would stay on as interim public works director through the end of this month, and that the town would “explore” future roles for him going forward.
After Freeland’s introduction, Bennett gave his final sewer update as interim director, saying that he had been on the job for about 90 days and that he was giving this report as a sort of “swan song” to the board.
Currently, the town conveys its wastewater 7miles uphill, through a series of pump and lift stations, to the Vista wastewater treatment plant, owned and operated by the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD).
Since 2015, the system has been plagued by a series of electrical and pump failures, as well as an aging pipe system.
In November 2025, town-voters approved ballot initiative 2A, which created a 1 percent sales tax increase for purchases within town limits to fund critical repairs and improvements to the sewer system.
The funds collected from this sales tax increase go into a newly created town Sewer Infrastructure and Facilities Fund (SIFF).
Most recently, the PSSGID directed town staff to review and order, if everything checked out, new Flygt pumps for pump stations 1 and 2.
Bennett explained that staff ordered these new pumps, and “they are now in the queue and we expect approximately six months for delivery.”
He noted staff is weighing if the town wants to go “out for bid” for the installation of the new pumps or if it wants to install them “in house.”
Staff has identified four contractors who have the experience and skill to install the new pumps, he explained.
“We’ve reached out to all four of them, and had declines from three,” but found a single contractor who can do the install on the town’s timeframe, he stated.
In negotiations with the contractor, staff got them to agree to bring down the cost of the installation by about “30 to 40 percent,” he told the board.
Public Works staff is also preparing for a comprehensive “pipe inspection,” working alongside hired consultant Roaring Fork Engineering, he added.
“We’re trying to figure out what to do to insert the sensors to see from Pump Station 1 all the way up to Vista [wastewater treatment plant] to ascertain the condition of the pipe itself, and whether we have any leaks or if we have any gas bubbles that need to be relieved,” he said.
The town has also hired “one new sanitation operator,” he said, “and we are interviewing for another” in the wake of losing an operator who resigned about three weeks ago.
He noted that the goal is to have four operators, which would “increase the efficiency of the team.”
On the current backup pumps the town is renting, he said that “we are in a more stable period now,” and the town is considering sending those backups back and possibly purchasing its own diesel backup pump that the town would own and operate for use in emergencies.
On the McCabe Creek project, an agenda document on the matter states that it “is progressing, and the crew has completed the pipe replacement to the end of the Loma Street Alley.”
The document adds, “They are starting the culvert replacement on the Florida Street one-way this week and anticipate it taking seven to ten days to complete the install.”
derek@pagosasun.com
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