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KOA campground installs flow monitoring; county, operator to supply monthly reports and peak-season data
Summary
County planning staff and a consulting engineer reported that KOA installed new flow-monitoring equipment across five septic systems, is sharing monthly data with CDPHE and the county, and the operator will report post-peak-season results to show whether flows remain under design limits.
County staff and a consulting engineer updated commissioners on Feb. 25 about a multi-year compliance project at the KOA campground to address concerns about overloaded on-site wastewater systems.
Planning Director Mark Castordale summarized the history: complaints and inspections beginning in 2021 led to two compliance advisories from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and multiple engineering reviews. The county required the owner to demonstrate each on-site wastewater treatment system (OWTS) is operating within its design capacity.
Civil engineer John Tufte of Sandell said the operator and consultants have installed reliable monitoring hardware (flumes, transducers and a custom control panel with cellular telemetry) on five systems (three gravity and two pumped). "They're giving us the data that is showing that we're below those maximum so far," he said, describing the data as 15-minute-interval flow logs that the county and state can view.
KOA general manager Jeff Smiddy told the board the campground will provide monthly reports (each month's data shared in the first week of the next month) and pledged to manage site assignments to keep daily flows within the 2,000-gallons-per-day cap applied where buffers overlap. "We know that we're gonna be keeping it within that 2,000 gallons per day, but we don't know exactly what those flows look like going, you know, coming into this season," Smiddy said, noting that much of 2025's peak season occurred before monitoring was fully operational.
Commissioners and residents asked for a public review after the first full busy season of monitoring; several commissioners suggested a fall update (September) once July/August peak-month data are available. County staff confirmed CDPHE remained involved and that the project never reached an enforcement trigger; CDPHE provided technical guidance and review of plans and flow data.
Next steps: KOA will submit monthly flow summaries to the county and CDPHE; the county and KOA will present peak-season results to the board in the fall. The board signaled that continued cooperative compliance and public reporting will be expected.
