City of Montrose weighs modular water-treatment option to curb manganese risks and steep bills

City of Montrose staff outlined competing approaches to address elevated manganese in the municipal water supply at a town-hall meeting, presenting a $30 million estimate for a full treatment plant and a far cheaper modular option that officials say deserves more study.

At the meeting, a city staff member said an engineering estimate for a conventional treatment facility was about $30,000,000 and that financing through a low-interest loan would add roughly $2,000,000 per year in debt service. “It would be a big increase at 1st about 200% higher than your current water bill and then smaller increases each year around 7%,” the staff member said, projecting substantial rate impacts for households if the full plant were built.

The staff member also summarized a multi-year debt-service schedule for the water-only portion of payments and said grant money is unlikely because manganese is not a regulated contaminant. The city noted past attempts to secure state funding: representatives had sought roughly $5 million in 2021–22 but those requests did not advance because manganese is treated as a recommended, not regulated, contaminant.

During a technical presentation, a presenter who has researched treatment options described health-guidance history from public agencies and the city’s testing record. The presenter cited Department of Health guidance (100 micrograms per liter for infants, 300 µg/L for older children and adults) and recounted local well test figures over several years, noting numbers that in some years approached or exceeded those guidance values. The presenter said the Department of Health had previously told city officials the water was safe to consume.

The presenter outlined household mitigation steps and point-of-use filters—carbon filters, distillation, reverse osmosis and water-softener treatment—which he said can reduce manganese from around 150 µg/L to below 100 µg/L at the tap. He also described exploratory work with a modular, pre-engineered treatment vendor identified in the meeting as Nueterra, calling it “an extremely viable option for the city of Montrose to, mitigate its manganese problems.” Preliminary preconstruction pricing cited in the presentation ranged from about $550,000–$700,000 for media filtration and $600,000–$800,000 for reverse-osmosis configurations, not including site civil and construction costs.

Residents repeatedly pressed for a timeline and for clarity on who would decide whether to proceed. City staff and the presenter said there was no immediate decision; the next steps are to send water samples to the vendor for a tailored design and to return with results and more cost information. The presenter and council members agreed to reconvene in roughly six months to review findings. “We’ll come back with what we have,” the presenter said.

Speakers also noted competing capital priorities: staff said wastewater treatment capacity needs have recently consumed planning attention and budget capacity (a separate wastewater project was cited in the meeting as a roughly $16 million priority). Residents urged prompt action to avoid further cost escalation; one attendee said, according to the transcript, “We gotta get this problem fixed now and nip it in the **** before everything else goes higher and higher and higher.”

No formal motion or council vote occurred during the town hall. The meeting closed after public questions and a pledge to return with more information; staff said they would test samples and work with engineers and the modular vendor before reporting back to the community.

The immediate practical outcomes: staff will collect and send samples to the vendor, refine construction and civil-cost estimates, and present a more detailed proposal to the council and the public in approximately six months. The city also plans to post manganese materials and the presentation online for residents who missed the meeting.