EL PASO COUNTY, CO — The Cherokee Metropolitan District held a ceremony Tuesday morning to celebrate the expansion of its wastewater facility.
The district provides water to the Cimarron Hills area just east of Colorado Springs. The expanded plant is the nation's largest municipal membrane bioreactor (MBR) wastewater treatment facility of its kind, according to the district.
This is also the United States ' largest high-recovery reverse osmosis treatment plant, (HRRO) according to the district. What makes this plant unique is its efficiency and sustainability through returning water to the aquifer for further use.
Once water is treated, that cleaned water or "effluent" is placed in rapid infiltration basins (RIBs) allowing for cleaned water to seep back into the aquifer to be reused as drinking water at a later time.
This sustainable method is different from traditional water treatment plants where effluent would be discharged into a river or stream, not allowing for recapture at a later date. The metropolitan district says this plant will help guarantee safe drinking water for their customers for many years to come.
"This water is so clean that it can be used again in the future if it's needed. So, this is a sustainable, resilient project and it is the only one in the state of Colorado with this type of pre-filtration system, this size," said Amy Lathen, General Manager-Cherokee Metropolitan District.
The Cherokee Metro District provides water to more than 40,000 customers. The project had a $45 million price tag and the Cherokee Metropolitan District sold bonds in 2020 to help pay for the project.
The district also said that 45.8% of the annual obligations for the project came from the Meridian Service Metropolitan District while Cherokee paid the rest. Residential customers pay a restricted surcharge of just over $7 a month to support the project.
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