Support Senate Bill 127 to Protect Colorado Waters for Future Generations
SB24-127: An Answer to Colorado's Water Regulation Crisis
Water is a way of life in Colorado, and the lifeblood of Colorado’s economy rests on the timely issuance of infrastructure and housing permits, so that we can safely create more housing, deliver broadband and more to rural communities without harming our natural resources.
Senate Bill 127 will maintain protections for Colorado’s waters and remove the uncertainty and cloud that remains over these critical projects. To address the uncertainty created by federal rollbacks and the Sackett decision, this bill proposes clear definitions and lines of jurisdiction, broad protections for Colorado’s waters and a regulatory permitting program housed in the Department of Natural Resources.
What's At Stake
Federal rollbacks and slow permit processing puts Colorado’s waters at risk of pollution, damage from development and more. Decisions at the federal level have created a massive regulatory hole that puts the future of our wetlands, fens and more at risk. Senate Bill 127 would restore protections to Colorado’s waters that the United States Army Corps of Engineers “Dredge and Fill” Permit Program provided prior to the Sackett decision by the US Supreme Court, so Colorado can return to a water quality system that is stable, efficient, and protective of human health.
How Did We Get Here?
The Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act of 1972 granted federal protections to “Waters of the United States,” including rivers, wetlands and more. First overturned by the Trump Administration and then found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, any wetlands without a continuous surface are unprotected – removing federal protections from nearly half of Colorado’s wetlands.
Despite federal rollbacks threatening our water resources for years, Coloradans are still waiting on the state to step up to preserve our natural resources. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has spent the last three years meeting with stakeholders to try to find a solution, creating massive delays for critical rural infrastructure and housing projects.
After years of waiting for a leader to emerge, a diverse coalition of agriculture, transportation, municipal, water districts, wastewater treatment entities, stormwater management entities, housing developers and resource extraction have come together to ask the state legislature to protect our natural resources. Colorado needs a solution so that our wetlands and other critical water resources are protected from current and future development as our state continues to grow.
"Establishing its own permitting program for fill activities will require amendment of the Colorado Water Quality Control Act, which is outside the control of CDPHE."
- Declaration of Nicole Rowan (Clean Water Program Manager for State of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment), STATE OF COLORADO v. U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, CASE No. 20-1238 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
