TELLURIDE – The Town of Telluride is about to get very serious about a topic that has been on the minds – and shoes – of many since the spring thaw began. Dog doo.

“It’s something we’ve really got to deal with,” said Mayor Stu Fraser who along with Councilmember Lulu Hunt recently helped a group of second-graders rid Telluride Elementary School’s playground of the unappetizing parcels left behind by a multitude of canine companions during this past season of record snowfall.

In fact, the preponderance of poop they scooped from their schoolyard prompted 13 pre-tweens to rally at Tuesday’s council meeting, where, with the help of their teacher, Matt Kroll, they implored the town elders to step in (no pun intended) to stop the madness.

They would prefer, after all, to play dodge ball, not dodge doo.

And if the pleas of schoolchildren weren’t enough to get council’s attention (although they were), local biologist Ramona Gaylord provided council with a startling statistic about the dangers of defecating dogs.

The impact of waste produced by 100 dogs located within a 20-mile radius of a watershed draining to a small coastal bay would contribute enough bacteria and nutrients to temporarily close it to swimming and shell fishing after two to three days, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

And as far as all that dust in town is concerned – the stuff sending the particulate matter meters into a frenzy – take a guess as to just what’s in it.

If the idea of aerated dog waste entering your lungs isn’t enough, there’s also the risk of parasite transmission to contend with. According to veterinarian Chris Capaldo, roundworm infection transmitted through dog feces can even cause problems to major organs.

The dogs can hardly be blamed for turning town into a toilet, though. It is fairly difficult to pick up after yourself without opposable thumbs.

Not true of their humans, however.

As a result the town is working on a method to help local law enforcement go after owners who ignore their animals’ olfactory affronts.

A new form from the Marshal’s Office is due to come into circulation soon. It will enable passersby to document occasions on which they witness owners neglecting their doodie duties. By signing the form the complainant agrees to be called as a witness if a ticket is issued and the matter goes to trial.

And to give owners a little more incentive to pick up, there’s discussion among council that the current $50 fine per infraction could stand to take a trip north – perhaps painfully so.

Unimpressed by the two bags of dog waste he recently helped remove from the school playground, not to mention the deposit a neighboring dog left behind in his driveway earlier this week, Fraser said that dog poop and how to deal with it could be on council’s agenda as early as its next meeting on April 22.