Yuma man wants subdivision added to Avenue B and C Colonia sewer project

A planned project to connect several hundred county residents in the area known as the Colonia to city sewer service may be getting even larger.

The owner of approximately 40 acres within the Colonia who originally asked to be excluded from the project has now asked the county to be included, the Yuma City Council was told during its roundtable Tuesday afternoon.

The property owner, Dan Winebargar, plans to develop a 165-home subdivision on his acreage.

The city's wastewater treatment system has the capacity to receive the sewage effluent from a new subdivision of that size, said City Administrator Mark Watson.

He is concerned, however, that the existing sewer line along Avenue B would not have the capacity to carry the effluent, "nor is such capacity included with the BandC Colonia improvement district design," Watson said in a letter to Winebarger.

Watson noted that the Yuma County's consultant, Stantec, is well along on the project's design and the project is expected to go to bid by September. In his letter to Winebarger, Watson said he expects that accommodating the proposed subdivision at this late date would "require significant redesign at your expense."

Contacted by the Yuma Sun following the council meeting, Winebarger declined to comment.

The Colonia is an unincorporated area off 1st Street between Avenues B and C with approximately 361 acres and includes 782 properties. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of the properties rely on septic tanks, systems that some fear pose an environmental and health risk.

The project to connect the county properties to city sewer service was sought by residents to improve their quality of life. The Yuma County Board of Supervisors is assisting by acting as the board of directors for the improvement district formed to fund the project.

In April, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva announced that the county was to receive $14.6 million in federal stimulus grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help pay for the project.

Subsequently, Grijalva announced that the Border Environment Corporation Commission will provide $410,053 in grant technical assistance. An additional $48,125 was to be awarded to complete a value engineering analysis aimed to improve the system design.

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.