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Monument Sanitation District, March 20 – Property owner petitions for inclusion

By Jackie Burhans and James Howald

The Monument Sanitation District (MSD) board held a public hearing March 20 on a homeowner’s petition for inclusion in the MSD service area. The board also heard an operational report from District Manager Mark Parker.

Failing septic system prompts request

Parker told the board that he had been approached by Rick Squires, the owner of a 2.8-acre property at 128 Monument Lake Rd., to provide sewer service to the property. Parker opened a public hearing to consider the request.

Parker explained that the leech field of the septic system at Squires’ property was failing, and El Paso County would not issue a permit to repair or replace it since MSD had sewer infrastructure close to the property. Parker said that Squires would pay all costs required to bring sewer service to his property. Those costs would include an $8,000 sewer tap fee and the cost of a lift station like the one in place at the Wakonda Hills neighborhood, as well as legal fees.

It was difficult to locate the MSD sewer main, Parker said. He believed the locating equipment did not correctly measure the depth of the pipeline. The pipeline runs under railroad tracks, Parker said, which added a complication to providing service.

There were no comments from the public, and Parker closed the hearing.

The board voted unanimously to approve the petition for inclusion.

Manager’s report

In his manager’s report, Parker told the board that accumulated grease had been pumped out of the Wakonda Hills lift station.

He said the upgrade of the district’s supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA), which controls, monitors and analyzes the district’s sewer infrastructure, had gone well so far but had revealed that the radios used by the system are no longer available to purchase and newer models are not backward compatible. Parker said replacing the radios would cost $16,000 if done now; next year the cost would go up to $25,000. He recommended immediate replacement.

Internet connectivity is in place at all the SCADA sites, Parker said, and he recommended that connectivity become the primary method of connecting the SCADA sites, with radios moving into a backup role. Parker said he would bring a detailed proposal to the next board meeting for consideration.

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Monument Sanitation District meetings are held at 9 a.m. on the third Wednesday of the month in the district conference room at 130 Second St., Monument. The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 17. See https://colorado.gov/msd. For a district service map, see https://colorado.gov/pacific/msd/district-map-0. Information: 719-481-4886.

Jackie Burhans can be reached at jackieburhans@ocn.me.

James Howald can be reached at jameshowald@ocn.me.

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