Dam Safety

• Establish a state grant program to facilitate dam rehabilitation and restoration of water storage currently prevented by restrictions.
• Support additional federal funding for the NRCS small watershed dam rehabilitation program in Colorado.
• Establish a program to facilitate the local sponsor matching funds required for NRCS program dollars to flow to Colorado; possibly a combination of grants and low interest loans. These funds would go, in large part, to sponsors (dam owners) who have the matching funds.
• Support Colorado’s presently successful state dam safety program with increased funding levels.

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Water Supply

The state should complete the CDSS and the SWSI and provide current information for water providers to actively plan and develop guidance.
Water providers should have a comprehensive water plan in place and update it on a regular basis. Water plans should be proactive instead of reactive (focus on providing enough water instead of how to deal with lack of water). The plans should include current and future conditions and consider the effects of various drought scenarios (that is, 10 year, 50 year, and 100 year).
Current and future water demand should be met through a combination of the following, which should be addressed in the SWSI:

• Education
• Conservation and efficiency
• Expansion or rehabilitation of existing reservoirs
• New water development projects
• Water banking/drought leasing from senior agriculture water supplies

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Drinking Water

• Appropriate capital expenditures toward the development of comprehensive asset management programs, and develop inventory databases to evaluate asset conditions. In the short term, these expenditures will be significant and demand comprehensive reconnaissance efforts and data processing work. Long-term savings will surely be realized as capital investments will be made efficiently and based on needs. Furthermore, short-term expenditures spent on unexpected collapsing of infrastructure is much more costly than maintenance and replacement costs spent ahead of time. Endeavors such as the Pipe Evaluation System (PIPES), by the Seattle Public Utilities Department are prime examples of how asset management is performed most effectively. With the tremendous growth of geographic information system (GIS) implementations comes the demand to realize the benefits of such expenditures. The power of a GIS implementation to perform spatial analysis and ability to store vast amounts of data related to spatial features makes it an ideal tool to support the evaluation of pipelines.
• Water providers, municipalities, and utilities need to work with the public to promote the need for additional research, increase awareness of future challenges, to evaluate local rate structures, and adjust rates where necessary.
• Encourage state funding of inventory projects.
• Reassess needs upon gathering better knowledge.

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Wastewater Treatment

• Appropriate capital expenditures toward the development of comprehensive asset management programs, and develop inventory databases to evaluate asset conditions. In the short term, these expenditures will be significant and demand comprehensive reconnaissance efforts and data processing work. Long-term savings will surely be realized as capital investments will be made efficiently and based on needs. Furthermore, short-term expenditures spent on unexpected collapsing of infrastructure is much more costly than maintenance and replacement costs spent ahead of time. Endeavors such as the Pipe Evaluation System (PIPES), by the Seattle Public Utilities Department are prime examples of how asset management is performed most effectively. With the tremendous growth of geographic information system (GIS) implementations comes the demand to realize the benefits of such expenditures. The power of a GIS implementation to perform spatial analysis and ability to store vast amounts of data related to spatial features makes it an ideal tool to support the evaluation of pipelines.
• Water providers, municipalities, and utilities need to work with the public to promote the need for additional research, increase awareness of future challenges, to evaluate local rate structures, and adjust rates where necessary.
• Encourage state funding of inventory projects.
• Reassess needs upon gathering better knowledge.

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Aviation

• Concerted efforts to ensure sustainable funding through federal legislation and state fuel taxation are required to maintain Colorado aviation infrastructure in good condition.
• Coordination between other infrastructure sectors such as roads and mass transit are vital to fulfilling federal expectations of multi-modal transportation efforts and improving all transportation sectors in Colorado.

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Roads

Solutions to ease the increasing demands on Colorado’s transportation system and improve highway conditions, capacity and safety, are available.

• On personal level, people could choose to move closer to their work locations, telework, or use alternative transportation methods. Colorado communities have made determined efforts to improve their sidewalks and bikeways.
• Changes in land development patterns could help to reduce the growth in travel demand.
• Local governments have borne the brunt of the increased population growth. Capital improvement bond measures in Thornton, for instance, will result in an improved transportation network. These measures have had some public support and allow citizens to make investments in roads most critical to their travel.
• Despite the good efforts by the state legislature two years ago, the recent economic downturn has resulted in little or no additional funds for transportation. There is little hope of this situation changing in the short term. Toll roads can be part of the solution, but are appropriate in only a few corridors where there is heavy travel demand, access control and congestion. Many locations cannot logically be tolled. Suggestions that the state gas tax be increased to fund the shortfall have received a cool reception, yet no alternatives have been presented. Considering the level of public dissatisfaction with the roadway network and the increased demands, state legislation should appropriate secure funding for transportation. This will, of course require voter approval because of TABOR.
• The $1.6 billion plus required for the T-REX project has primarily been borrowed against future federal highway grants. This means that, in the years following the completion of the T-REX project, federal funds available for Colorado will be used in part to repay incurred debt. The current funding for national transportation is appropriated by Congress through TEA 21. Congress must fully reauthorize TEA 21 soon. CDOT’s support of the reauthorization of TEA-21, such that it guarantees increased gas and diesel taxes that are directed to transportation projects only and not the general fund, and that the state receive its fair share return on taxes generated in Colorado, should be vocal and local governments and Colorado residents should advocate it.
• Coordination between other infrastructure sectors such as aviation and mass transit are vital to fulfilling federal expectations of multi-modal transportation efforts and improving all transportation sectors in Colorado.
• Colorado has made steps in transportation funding to help address the growth in demand. This effort now needs to be built upon to provide a sustainable funding stream to improve and maintain our roadway network.

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Environmental Cleanup

The primary recommendation is to use the exemplary Colorado UST program as an example for other state programs to follow in addressing contaminated sites. In addition, the following measures are recommended:

• Take steps to ensure that state revenues exist to fund the RCRA hazardous waste cleanup and CERCLA programs, as well as provide funding to address contaminated mine sites at required levels (and at levels comparable to the UST program).
• Contaminated mine sites throughout the state need be addressed more energetically.
• Legislative efforts granting third parties permits and protections for helping with and paying for mine cleanup need be fostered.

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Solid Waste

It is difficult under the current record-keeping system to evaluate current and remaining landfill capacity. The state regulatory agency could establish a more user-friendly database with current landfill capacity and status of permitted volumes.

There are very limited data available on the volume of waste that is recycled in Colorado. Monitoring and tracking of recycling efforts should be improved.

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Air Quality

Colorado has made significant progress in meeting EPA’s established air quality standards while millions of people continue to live in counties throughout the United States that do not meet these standards that protect public health and the environment. It is imperative, however, that Colorado redirects its focus on the cause and effects of the state’s air quality challenges. It is also recommended that Colorado:

• Continue to institute wood burning controls and similar “behavioral” programs as needed.
• Develop effective public education and awareness programs that allow the public to see the value in supporting programs and initiatives, both behaviorally and fiscally.
• Develop a long-range strategy to address future air quality risks, pollution sources, and the potential impacts of population growth.
• Develop quantitative criteria and measurements to justify the effectiveness of each existing air quality program to improve air quality within the state. For example, federally mandated emission controls on newer automobiles may be playing a much larger role than local public education efforts.
• Institute new programs based on technical relevance versus public or political perceptions that will have the best “return on investment.”
• Be proactive versus reactive in its approach to addressing air quality.

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Bridges

One solution to prevent Colorado’s bridges from deteriorating is to increase funding allocated to CDOT. In addition to increased funding, there are other things that should be done to insure a safe and efficient bridge system.

The key to effectively managing the state’s bridge system is to spend the money allocated to CDOT more wisely through asset management. Asset management is a current buzzword in the industry, which basically refers to taking inventory of the components of a system (in this case, bridges) and having a structured plan in place to forecast the maintenance needs of that system. Currently, the maintenance system in place is reactive. Every 2 years, a bridge is inspected and any required maintenance needs are placed on a list with other required maintenance.

An asset management system would take a more proactive stance and would be used to forecast the future needs of the system and to determine the best way to allocate the available funds. CDOT is currently using the Pontis software package for its management system. Pontis supports the entire bridge management cycle, allowing user input at every stage of the process. The system stores bridge inventories and records inspection data. After inspection data have been entered, Pontis can be used for maintenance tracking and federal reporting. Pontis integrates the objectives of public safety and risk reduction, user convenience, and preservation of investment to produce budgetary, maintenance, and program policies. Additionally, it provides a systematic procedure for the allocation of resources to the preservation and improvement of the bridges in a network. Pontis accomplishes this by considering both the costs and benefits of maintenance policies versus investments in improvements or replacements.

CDOT inspectors have been conducting Pontis element inspections for the last 9 years. The inspectors started using the software inspection module in July of 2002. The on-system database will be current in the Pontis software package as of April of 2003, with the off-system information being up to date as of July of 2003. Programming and planning results should be available from the software package as early as February of 2004.

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Energy

While Colorado is not currently in a power crisis, the recent increase in population growth could quickly tax the system. Increasing the 5-year planning window currently used in the integrated resource planning process would be helpful in ensuring the state’s future energy needs are met.

The transmission question is not easily addressed. Without the use of an eminent domain approach, construction of new lines will be bogged down in extended proceedings. The resulting delay in construction may impact bringing any new generating units on line in time to meet the demand. This is will be very a touchy political issue that will pit local control against regional needs. Indeed, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is already seeing less than favorable response to federal pre-emption in these matters.

There are no quick or easy solutions to the challenges facing the energy industry in Colorado. While most agree that energy generation and transmission capabilities need to keep pace with growing demands, few are willing to allow new lines or facilities to be built where they live. The 2003 blackout in the northeast was a dramatic example of what can happen when the power system fails. Hopefully, it will serve to motivate Colorado to re-examine its power needs and capacities.

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Mass Transit

• Support for additional regional funding efforts such as the RTD FasTracks proposal is critical.
• Advocacy of additional federal transit funds for Colorado communities as part of the reauthorization of the federal transportation bill is crucial.
• Coordination between other infrastructure sectors such as roads and aviation are vital to fulfilling federal expectations of multi-modal transportation efforts and improving all transportation sectors in Colorado.

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