Water Quality Forum
DRCOG - May 20, 2002
Group Memory

Agenda

1:00 p.m. Agenda Review, Introductions, Web site Update

1:10 p.m. Legislative Update (Barbara Biggs, Sara Duncan)

1:40 p.m. WQCC Update (Paul Frohardt)

2:00 p.m. ISDS Steering Committee recommendations (Paul Frohardt)

2:30 p.m. Break

2:45 p.m. 2002 Retreat and Committee Updates

3:15 p.m. Arid West Water Quality Research Project Updates
- Final Habitat Characterization Study (Sue Morea)
- Draft Extant Criteria Evaluation Study (Bob Gensemer)

4:45 p.m. Adjourn to 10th Anniversary Celebration at LaLoma

Legislative Update (Sara Duncan)

The following bills should be of some interest:

S. 68 - The CWCB is asking that its Board members be paid $50.00/day per diem in addition to expenses. Passed Senate 3/25/02. Passed House 4/22/02.

S. 69 - This bill has been signed by the Governor and amends the Open Record Act to exclude security plans from public access. Existing law allowed closing public meetings for security purposes, but did not have protection for security measures that were written down. Now public bodies can keep this information from the public.

S. 87 - In this bill Senator Evans provides for a voluntary check off on income tax returns for watershed improvement. The legislation would create a source for needed nonpoint source water quality funding. The bill as amended provides the Watershed Assembly is in an advisory role on grants. The Water Quality Control Commission and the Colorado Water Conservation Board would establish standards for grant giving, oversee the program, and two members from each body would award the grant. The recipient could not use money for political purposes or for litigation. The bill passed the Senate on 3/22/02. The bill passed the House w/ amendments on 4/25/02. The Senate concurred w/ the House Amendments late on the last day of the session.

S. 148 - Sen. Hillman tried to address the movement of irrigation water out of the southeastern counties to Aurora and Colorado Springs. His original bill would have interfered with the water court's oversight of material injury to water rights in a change case and with the Water Quality Control Commission's standard setting. The bill as submitted made it so difficult to move water; undoubtedly the cities would be forced to look to west Slope unappropriated flows. Sen. Hillman agreed to amend the bill to allow for PILT payments to counties where the agriculture water is moved to another use at least 20 miles away across a county line. The portion of the bill that calls for a taxing district to purchase water rights and to fight change cases remains intact. Rep. Kester is the House sponsor of this bill. Killed in House Ag. on 4/25/02. On the last days of the session there was an attempt to graft this bill onto another bill w/ a broad title, but that effort was defeated.

S. 156 - Sen. Gordon, at the behest of the environmentalists, introduced this bill to get more instream flows for the streams of Colorado. He crafted a system of absolute, donated water rights that can be left in the stream. This bill was once opposed by most of the water community, but after the sponsor agreed to amendments to keep the donated water program with the CWCB water suppliers generally supported this bill. The most significant change in the language is that for donated water rights there is no "minimum" ceiling for acceptance by the CWCB. Further, donated water rights can be used to both "preserve and improve the natural environment to a reasonable degree." The Farm Bureau and some agriculture groups are opposing this bill because allegedly they were "not at the table" when amendments were agreed to and because they are uncertain of how it would affect them. However, the Colorado Cattlemen, the Farmers Union and the Grange support the bill as creating a new market for their water rights and they believe the donation program may provide flexibility in restoring rivers. The bill passed on 3rd reading in the House on 4/26/02. The Senate concurred w/ the House Amendments on 4/30/02, and the bill is on the Governor's desk awaiting signature.

S. 180 - The bill sponsored by Sen. Phillips and Rep. Spradley would have promoted renewable energy resources and was amended to include hydropower units of 20 mw or less. The bill passed the Senate on 4/30/02 and passed the House w/ amendments on 5/8/02. It does not appear as if there was sufficient time for the Senate to concur in the House amendments, so the bill failed.

S. 214 - The Department of Local Affairs ["DOLA"] talked Sen. Fitz-Gerald into moving all the Moffat Tunnel provisions to one place in the statutes and to delete obsolete portions of the legislation. Passed the Senate Business and Finance Committee on April 29 with an amendment that deletes the reference to the "water tunnel" [purchased by Denver Water in Jan. of 1998] and to DOLA's authority to approve transmission of water. Bill passed the Senate on 5/3/02, and passed the House on the last day of the session.

HB 1012 - This bill appropriates $10M from the general fund to the species conservation trust fund. Rep. Rippey asked that the bill be killed due to budget constraints and the House Appropriations Committee gladly complied on 4/5/02. To add insult to injury, the legislature "borrowed $2.5M from the fund for general fund purposes to meet the revenue shortfall facing the budget this year and next, but promised to pay it back. The legislature took an additional $3M to meet this year's revenue shortfall, but made no payback promise. Water users will consider setting up an Endanger Species Act compliance fund outside the legislature.

HB 1024 - This bill creates a permanent water resources interim committee, but due to budget constraints is only a one-year committee. Rep. White and Sen. Taylor are sponsors of this bill. The bill passed the House on 5/2/02, and passed the Senate in the last hour of the session.

HB 1041 - Rep. Rippy of Glenwood Springs is trying to level the impact of the wild fluctuations that occur is the severance tax fund. Therefore, he would require every program with an operational program under the fund to maintain a two-year balance that cannot be raided by the JBC for general fund purposes in a budget tight year. The state Department of Natural Resources runs the Office of Geology and Minerals and part of Mined Land Reclamation through this fund. The Governor on 4/18/02 signed the bill.

HB 1110 - The bill allows the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District [Metro Sewer] to issue revenue bonds without an election. The Governor on 3/21/02 signed the bill.

HB 1118 - The Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority that oversees the revolving loan funds that result from provisions in the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts initiated HB 1118. The legislation operates as follows:

Increases the Small Water Project limit from $25M to $100M. This would allow the Authority to take advantage of the bond markets without legislative approval.

Expands the definition of "water management facilities" that can be funded under this program to explicitly include the word "sewer". The Authority has operated under the assumption that "sewer projects" are implicitly included in this program, so this part of the act would clarify the language.

Allows the authority to fund emergency projects with revolving loan funds and give the legislature notice so the action can be approved by the next session of the legislature. Too often the loan lists have excluded a needed project, and this language would give the Authority the ability to respond in a timely fashion.

Gives the Authority the tools to move money between the revolving loan funds in order to respond to immediate needs. Eliminates the state moral obligation pledge that represents potential, unknown liability for the state. The Governor on 3/22/02 signed the bill.

H.B. 1315 - Rep. Mitchell and Sen. Hagedorn are the sponsors of the Governor's omnibus terrorism bill that creates a Colorado Office of Preparedness and Security. It includes an Open Records Act provision that a custodian of public records not release "specialized details of security arrangements and investigations." It is important to keep security plans secret and even the Press Association does not oppose this limit of the Open Records Act. The passed the House on 4/1/02 and is before the Senate Public Policy and Planning Committee. The bill passed the Senate w/ amendments that were unacceptable to the House, so the bill failed on the last day of the session. The public records issue is addressed in S. 69 above.

S. 1319 - Due to the tremendous growth in Colorado, the ability to place infrastructure for public utility services is very difficult. Rep. Webster and Sen. Takis' bill allow for condemnation of railroad rights of way crossings by cities, towns and public utilities. The public utilities seem to include water. The bill passed the House on 4/22/02 and the Senate on 5/8/02.

HB 1343 - Rep. Cadman has introduced a bill that forbids schools to be charged for impact fees on property not owned by them. The bill, if passed, would result in a wholesale shift of costs from schools to local government without any apparent reason. The journal shows the bill was killed on 3/27/02.

HB 1344 - This is the bill that increases point discharge and CAFO fees. It is widely supported in the water community as the Health Dept. is notoriously short of funds. Passed House on 4/9/02. Rep. Scott and Sen. Linkhart are the sponsors. The bill passed the Senate in the last hours of the session on 5/8/02. The Governor's office indicated it will sign the bill.

HB 1357 - This bill amends notification of mineral owners for development construction. Passed the House 3/20/02 and amended in the Senate to exclude construction of water pipelines from the notification. The bill passed the Senate on 5/6/02 as amended, and the House concurred in the Senate amendments on 5/7/02. The bill awaits the Governor's signature.

HB 1414 - This is the long-awaited bill dealing with temporary supply plans. The bill authorizes temporary substitute supply plan approval for emergencies, temporary construction, during the pendency of water court applications, and a grandfather for existing undecreed temporary plans of augmentation until the end of this year. There is a right of appeal to water court from the state engineer's rulings. The water court hearing is to be on an expedited schedule. The bill has been well received in the water community. Passed the House on 4/17/02. Passed the Senate on 5/1/02. The Governor has indicated he will sign the bill.

HB 1470 - This bill by Rep. Rippey and Sen. Taylor increased penalties for starting fires during drought conditions. This is a bill than just ran out of time. It passed the House on 5/7/02 and passed the Senate on second reading on 5/8/02, but there was insufficient time to get it passed on 3rd reading. The bill died.

Call Sara Duncan at 303-628-6565 or 322-4065 [home] if you have questions.

If you need copies of bills, they may be obtained by logging onto the state site at www.leg.state.co.us

WQCC Update (Paul Frohardt)

May Meeting:

• WQCC conducted an informational hearing and approved revisions to design criteria for wastewater treatment facilities.
• The Commission and the Division will coordinate efforts to respond to EPA's draft strategy for Water Quality Standards and Criteria which was recently published.
• An Informational Hearing was conducted on a Commission policy regarding section 208 plan amendments and agreement was reached to allow the current policy to expire
• Sediment guidance- Commission approved the revised version of guidance through 2006. Want the Sediment Work Group to work on the concept of "Expected Conditions".
• The WQCC approved the proposed revision to the Discharge Permit regulations to implement HB01-1032
• The WQCC approved the FY02 proposal for nonpoint source funding
• An Informational Hearing was conducted on the Division's proposed biomonitoring guidance. Suggestions of changes were given but no formal actions were taken.
• An Informational Hearing was conducted on the Division's draft policy for characterization of ambient water quality for drafting discharge permits
  

June Meeting:

• The Annual Retreat will be in June in Fort Morgan
  July Meeting (regular meeting):
• Water Quality Standard rulemaking hearing: Arkansas and Rio Grande

ISDS Steering Committee (Paul Frohardt)
[A handout is available upon request.]

A full report is available under "Special Topics" on the Water Quality Control Commission's web site at:

www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/wqcc/wqcchom.asp

Committee Updates

The current work groups and chairs are listed below. Updates on committee progress are available on the Water Quality Forum web site.

a. Surface Water Basic Standards Implementation (Paul Frohardt)
b. TMDL/303(d) issues (Phil Hegeman)
c. Funding Issues (Dave Holm)
d. Permit Issues (Dave Akers)
e. Nutrient Criteria (Bob McConnell)
f. Commission Rulemaking Process (Paul Frohardt)
g. Continuing Planning Process (Barbara Biggs)
h. Sediment Guidance (Bob McConnell)
i. Impacted Water Supply (Dave Akers)
j. Temperature Standards (Dave Akers)
k. Aquatic Life Classifications (Bob McConnell)

Arid West Water Quality Research Project Updates
[Handout available upon request]

• Final Habitat Characterization Study (Sue Morea)
• Draft Extant Criteria Evaluation Study (Bob Gensemer)

The full study is available at www.co.pima.az.us/wwm/wqrp/index.html