Colorado lags far behind neighboring states when it comes to keeping special permits critical to stopping pollutants from entering streams current, a new report says.
Colorado’s backlog has, at times, surged to 70%, while six other states surveyed have fairly few lapsed wastewater treatment permits, according to the report, with Arizona and Oregon, for instance, showing permit backlogs of just 10%.
The analysis was commissioned last year to help the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and state lawmakers understand why the situation has deteriorated and how it can be fixed.
This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org.
The permits are required under the federal Clean Water Act and govern how municipal plants that treat wastewater and release it back into rivers and streams must operate. They are designed to protect Colorado’s waterways from contaminants contained in wastewater. The state is required to enforce the federal law.
The problem leaves wastewater utilities in regulatory limbo, where simple actions, like using more modern treatment compounds, can’t be taken because technically the utilities aren’t in compliance with current rules. That status prevents them from modifying or changing their approach to treatment while permits are lapsed, even though it might improve treatment and save money, according to Dan DeLaughter, chair of the Colorado Wastewater Utilities Council.
Colorado lawmakers approved $6 million in new funding in 2023 to help the CDPHE’s Water Quality Control Division hire more people to help process permits more quickly and efficiently, but the backlog remains and affects major treatment facilities, including Metro Water Recovery, which serves the Denver metro area and which is the largest treatment facility in the state.
The backlog has left dozens of communities without a current wastewater discharge permit. They can still discharge under a special administrative rule, but the backlog means the communities may not be complying with the most current wastewater treatment standards and they are prohibited from moving ahead with planning and design of new treatment systems that take years to permit and complete.
Colorado’s problems stem from a system that doesn’t prioritize work properly, lacks clear information about processing status and gets bogged down in lengthy internal and public reviews, the report said.
It also cited heavy workloads as contributing factors.
Other states have more success because they have better internal tracking and reporting systems, prioritize work more efficiently, and utilize newer technologies that allow the complex permitting processes to be better integrated, the report said.
The state Water Quality Control Division has been hiring and training new staff to reduce the backlog, said Nicole Rowan, the division’s director.
“We know this is an area we need to improve,” she said.
Colorado may also be hampered by a lack of resources and its commitment to strict, detailed enforcement, said Meg Parish, a water quality expert and senior attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project.
Oregon, she said, has invested heavily in its permitting systems, while other states lack the robust environmental laws and regulations on Colorado’s books that make permitting more complex.
“I would love to see Colorado invest the kinds of resources in permitting that Oregon has,” she said.
This spring, lawmakers became so concerned that they passed a new law that tightened deadlines and added more scrutiny of the division’s work. The new report is part of the effort to clean up and streamline the troubled permitting system.
Key to the effort is working on complex engineering and water quality analyses that govern how treatment plants can operate while meeting current and future water quality rules, such as those governing PFAS contamination.
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Concern among cities whose treatment facilities don’t have current permits remains high, said Dan DeLaughter, chair of the Colorado Wastewater Utility Council.
The numbers of current permits, he said, “are still incredibly low. I hope they can begin to turn that around. But I haven’t seen a lot of progress in the last couple of years.”
“I’m encouraged they are looking at the issues,” he said. “But I think there is a lot more work to be done.”