Closing Colorado’s Rural Water Infrastructure Gap in Avondale
A coordinated drinking water and wastewater strategy that strengthens daily service, prepares the District for future water-quality requirements, and creates a clearer path to construction funding.
Avondale Water and Sanitation District is advancing a multiphase drinking water and wastewater infrastructure program to improve water reliability, treatment capacity, storage, PFAS planning, and long-term wastewater resilience for the rural community east of Pueblo.
The District serves approximately 1,600 people with drinking water and wastewater services in the Avondale and Orchard Park communities in Pueblo County. Like many small Colorado utilities, Avondale is balancing aging infrastructure, emerging regulatory requirements, limited ratepayer capacity, and the need to compete for public funding.
Jesik Consulting & Engineering has served as the District’s engineer for more than a decade, providing planning, funding coordination, design support, procurement documentation, owner-representative services, construction-phase support, and regulatory coordination. This partnership has supported a phased capital improvement approach focused on efficiency, reliability, cost control, and practical project delivery.
Drinking Water Infrastructure Improvements
Drinking water improvements include treatment plant upgrades, distribution system replacements, metering improvements, and storage tank work. Planned upgrades include chlorination modifications for Arkansas Valley Conduit supply, pH adjustment, filter removal and repiping, inline booster pumps, new finished water pumps, asbestos-cement pipeline replacement, service connections, gate valves, pavement restoration, recoating an existing 750,000-gallon bolted steel tank, and replacing a 180,000-gallon tank with a new 500,000-gallon welded steel tank.
The District is also using a CDPHE Emerging Contaminants grant for PFAS planning and design, including treatment alternatives evaluation, pilot testing, planning and design documentation, and future Drinking Water Revolving Fund support.
Wastewater improvements include Fort Reynolds lift station and pipeline work to consolidate the Fort Reynolds lagoon into the Avondale wastewater treatment facility. The work includes replacing an existing lift station and installing approximately 10,953 linear feet of 4-inch DR 11 HDPE pipeline. A separate wastewater Preliminary Engineering Report is evaluating deficiencies, alternatives, planning-level costs, funding strategy, rate impacts, and a 20-year planning horizon.
Avondale Energy Efficient Statewide Recognition
Avondale has also earned statewide recognition from the Colorado Rural Water Association as the Energy Efficient System of the Year, reflecting improvements such as variable-frequency-drive integration, pump replacement and reconditioning, controls optimization, treatment plant upgrades, and phased capital planning.
Together, documented drinking water and wastewater funding and project commitments total approximately $4.383 million. Funding sources include:
• Pueblo County ARPA Water and Sanitation Improvements: $3,311,029
• CDPHE Emerging Contaminants Tier 1 Planning and Design Grant: $68,586
• CDPHE/state wastewater contract: $596,057
• Fort Reynolds Lift Station and Pipeline construction contract: $349,999
• Wastewater Preliminary Engineering Report task order: $57,920.25
• Total documented program value: approximately $4.383 million
Project Team: Avondale Water and Sanitation District; Jesik Consulting & Engineering, district engineer and owner’s representative; K.R. Swerdfeger, now Miller Pipeline; DN Tanks; R.J. Gleeson; and Sun Valley Contractors.
For Avondale, the result is a coordinated drinking water and wastewater strategy that strengthens daily service, prepares the District for future water-quality requirements, and creates a clearer path to construction funding. For Jesik Consulting & Engineering, the work reflects the firm’s focus on helping Colorado communities close practical infrastructure gaps through responsive engineering, clear funding strategy, and hands-on project delivery.
