Colorado lawmakers must move quickly to set up a permitting program for dredging and filling intermittent streams and wetlands.
Clean Water Act
Posted inWater
Some Western Slope creeks are so clean, groups are working toward Outstanding Waters designations
To get the designation, a steam’s water quality must meet 12 standards for pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, E. coli and ammonia, and be under a threshold for seven dissolved metals, including cadmium, copper, lead and silver
Posted inWater
A Colorado mountain town is famous for its water, which may become some of the priciest in the state
Colorado tells the San Juan Mountains town their ancient spring has been infiltrated, and now needs $12 million in new filtration
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The EPA begins a 5-year campaign to rid Colorado of lead water pipes
When it comes to our health, particularly children’s health, lead is among the most harmful contaminants we face daily in our environment. Health experts who have studied lead agree on a sobering message — there is no safe level of exposure. One of the biggest challenges is that lead is often invisible and its impacts […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government, Water
Colorado refuses to ease rules for how much pollution gets discharged into rivers and streams
The state Water Quality Control Commission has delayed for at least a decade a controversial proposal that would have allowed further degradation of Colorado waters already challenged by pollution In a scheduled review of the state’s “antidegradation” provision — a key to the federal Clean Water Act — some on the commission had sought to […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Environment, Growth
Mitigation “bank” near Greeley will offset wetland damage, meet Clean Water Act rules
Developers often dropped by unannounced at the Allely farm to ask if the family would consider selling their 70-acre property south of Greeley at the confluence of the Big Thompson and South Platte rivers. The answer was always no — the Allelys did not want their land, which had been in the family since in […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Water
Many hoped the Gold King Mine spill would bring change. Five years later, they’re still waiting.
It didn’t take long after the sludge settled five years ago for the calls for change to begin. In fact, 3 million gallons of orange-gold water that poured out of the Gold King Mine on Aug. 5, 2015, was still flowing through the Colorado River watershed when discussions about the broader issue of thousands of […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: William Perry Pendley is exactly the opposite of who we need to lead the BLM
Last week, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt quietly re-upped the appointment of William Perry Pendley as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management. By skirting Congress and not officially nominating Pendley to serve as the actual director, the administration may be trying to avoid the appropriate scrutiny that has always been required by those seeking […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Politics and Government
Colorado attorney general taking hard look at Trump administration’s clean-water regulations rollback
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is taking a hard look at the Trump administration’s decision last week to roll back Obama-era clean water regulations as he determines how to respond. The Democrat says that he might challenge the unwinding of the Waters of the United States Rule if he determines that the Environmental Protection Agency […]