Leadville sanitation district lays out multi‑year pipe replacements and $16M plant rehab

Joshua Miller, district manager for the Leadville Sanitation District, told the Lake County Board of County Commissioners on Jan. 20 the district has been working this year to repair aging sewer infrastructure that is letting groundwater into the collection system and overwhelming the wastewater plant.

Miller said infiltration and inflow (I&I) from cracked vitrified‑clay pipe and failing manholes is increasing peak flows at the plant from a typical 350,000 gallons per day to as much as 1.5 million gallons per day during spring melt, a volume above the plant’s rated capacity. The district has identified trouble spots and focused construction this year on about 2,000 linear feet of pipe; the whole system has about 200,000 linear feet, Miller said.

The district’s near‑term work is concentrated on alleys and downtown streets where older 6‑ and 8‑inch pipes remain. Miller said slip‑lining has limited value given pipe condition, and in places the district expects to abandon some in‑house alignments and reroute mains into streets. He described a point repair on Toledo Street tied to a fiber line installation that has been leaching for months and…