City of Pueblo Wastewater Department and the James R. Dilorio Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) was recognized by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) with the Platinum Peak Performance Award for the ninth consecutive year of 100 percent compliance.

“The Pueblo Wastewater Department is honored to receive this achievement of Platinum Peak Performance Award for the ninth consecutive year,” said Director of Wastewater Andra Ahrens. “I am very proud of our team who earned this achievement through full compliance, and we look to continue maintaining this level of service with permit compliance for many years to come.”

Pueblo’s WRF is one of two facilities in the state of Colorado to achieve continuous compliance with all effluent limits, terms and conditions of its discharge permit to receive this Platinum Peak Performance Award. Platinum Awards recognize 100 percent compliance with permits over a consecutive five-year period after a facility has received the award at the Gold level previously.

Pueblo is one of 173 Platinum facilities to have achieved between five and 33 years of perfect, 100 percent compliance with their permits. In total 517 facilities received Peak Performance Awards for fiscal year 2022 with 204 receiving Gold and 140 receiving Silver recognition.

Effective maintenance of the Water Reclamation Facility is critical in maintaining compliance and providing the maintenance of sanitary sewer main throughout the City of Pueblo. The Water Reclamation Facility treats more than 10 million gallons of wastewater per day and is reclaimed through natural processes. Proper collection and treatment are essential for public health for residents of Pueblo and the surrounding region.

“This recognition for the Water Reclamation Facility is a testament to the hard work of our dedicated staff who take the adherence to compliance and regulations very seriously in order to provide the highest quality of service and safety to our community and the surrounding region,” Said Ahrens.

Each year during the annual meeting NACWA recognized the commitment, innovation and achievements of public water entities and individual achievements for the clean water community. Other awards in addition to the Peak Performance Awards include the Clean Water Advocate Recognition Program, Excellence in Management Recognition Program, National Environmental Achievement Awards, Utility of the Future Today Recognition Program and the NACWA Hall of Fame.

For over 50 years, NACWA has been the nation’s recognized leader in legislative, regulatory, and legal advocacy on the full spectrum of clean water issues, as well as top technical resource for water management, sustainability and ecosystem protection interests. NACWA represents public wastewater and stormwater agencies of all sizes nationwide. The Association’s unique and growing network strengthens the advocacy voice for all member utilities, and ensures they have the tools necessary to provide affordable and sustainable clean water for all.

Source: City of Pueblo

On August 7, three laws to reduce the cost of housing, protect homeowners’ access to insurance plans, and improve local governments’ ability to hold short-term rentals to local rules and regulations went into effect.

“The lack of housing in Colorado is driving up home prices and rental rates while also negatively impacting our environment,” said Rep. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, sponsor of HB23-1255. “By eliminating arbitrary local growth caps, communities will be able to strategically build housing that better accommodates our needs while also reducing our reliance on car travel, which will improve our air quality.”

“Colorado needs more housing,” said Senator Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, sponsor of HB23-1255. “Eliminating arbitrary growth caps will increase supply and allow more Coloradans to remain in the communities they currently live and work in. I’m proud to champion policy that will help com- munities keep up with ongoing growth, ease displacement, and help us meet our housing needs.”

“Arbitrary growth caps shift the burden of keeping up with housing demand on neighboring, and often lower-income, communities,” said Rep. Ruby Dickson, D-Centennial, sponsor of HB23-1255. “Housing affordability is one of the biggest concerns for Coloradans. With our new law going into effect soon, we can tackle our housing shortage together while reducing commute times and air pollution.”

Beginning August 7, local governments are prohibited from enacting and enforcing housing growth restrictions that limit housing development to a certain number of building permits or approvals without a transparent process and fair consideration of a proposal’s merits. Under HB23-1255, local governments are not required to accept any specific developments or projects, but they can’t reject a proposal simply due to an arbitrary growth cap.

“The increasing threat of wildfires has left many homeowners with less insurance coverage than they need, but with our new law, home owners will have more options for additional coverage they can afford,” said Rep. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, sponsor of HB23-1174. “Coloradans will be able to purchase a plan that provides the peace of mind that their home is appro- priately insured in the event of a wildfire disaster.”

“Homeowners in my community have faced devastating and costly damage from wildfires that can feel impossible to build back from,” said Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville, sponsor of HB23-1174. “With our new law going into effect soon, Colorado homeowners will be able to purchase coverage that meets their needs and protects them from future wildfire damage.”

Starting August 7, HB23-1174, also sponsored by Republican Senator Mark Baisley, requires home insurance companies to offer a variety of extended coverages to protect consumers, covering the cost of repair or replacement for a damaged or destroyed structure. If a homeowner wants additional coverage, the insurer must offer coverage for extended replacement, law and ordinance, and inflation protection. It also extends the length of time in which an insurer would have to notify a homeowner of a cancellation or refusal to renew a homeowner’s policy from 30 days to 60 days.

Representative Judy Amabile passed similar legislation in the 2022 Legislative Session in response to the Marshall Fire that destroyed over 1,000 homes in Boulder County. The law ensured that homeowners received fair compensation for the loss of their property and streamlined the insurance claims process for underinsured disaster victims.

“These two new bipartisan laws that take effect today are the next step forward in our continued and multi-faceted commitment to addressing the housing crisis in Colorado,” said Senator Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, sponsor of HB23-1174 and HB23-1287. “The bolstered insurance protections offered by HB 1174 will help protect vulnerable Coloradans and allow people to insure their homes, businesses, and property against potential disasters like wildfires. And with HB23-1287, we’re strengthening protections for local residents in rural resort communities to help curb the unintended impacts of short-term rentals on our communities.”

“Short-term rentals offer important benefits to our mountain communities and support tourism, but it’s clear they have impacts on the liveability of our towns,” said Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, sponsor of HB23-1287. “By strengthening transparency and compliance with local regulations of short- term rentals, we can live in neighborhoods that work better for everyone.”

“Rural resort communities know firsthand the impact that short-term rentals have had on our neighborhoods and our housing market,” said Rep. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, sponsor of HB23-1287. “With the implementation of our new law, local governments will now be able to effectively regulate short-term rentals to protect owners, renters, and community members if a short-term rental violates local rules and regulations.”

A board of county commissioners already has the authority to regulate units that are rented or used for short-term stays. HB23-1287 clarifies the definition of a short-term rental and provides counties with the authority to work with digital platforms to accurately list compliant short-term rentals.

Beginning August 7, HB23-1287 gives counties the ability to require an owner of a property, or the owner’s agent, to include a rental license or permit in any listing for a short-term rental unit on a digital platform. If a county has regulations on short-term rentals, the county will be able to require a digital platform to remove any rental listing if the owner of the listing:

• Has their local short-term rental license or permit suspended or revoked,

• Has received a notice violation, or a similar legal process, for not holding a valid local short-term rental license or permit, or

• Is not allowed to list their unit as a short-term rental due to county rules.

Source: The Colorado General Assembly

It is one of those ‘good news/ bad news’ realities in Colorado, as well as the rest of the nation at least for road maintenance workers. The ‘good news’ is that there will always be work. The ‘bad news’ is that, well, there will always be work. No street or roadway will ever be completely finished; road repairs are simply a reality. Yet, no matter how much work is directed toward making a road better, safer and easier to navigate, it’s a thankless job.

Potholes, also known colloquially as everything from ‘chuck-holes,’ to ‘road gashes’ along with scores of other more colorful or even obscene names, are the bane of drivers and municipal budgets. They can be anything from a small opening in the pavement to a gaping, crater-like hole capable of creating damage that no driver wants to deal with. And in Colorado and everywhere else, they’re the cost of hitting the road and, perhaps, the road hitting back.

The city of Aurora, one of the fastest growing metropolitan centers in Colorado—its population now exceeds that of Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh—is working daily to maintain its more than 4,100 miles of roadway for its nearly 400,000 citizens.

In 2022, the Aurora City Council, said Michael Brannan, Aurora Senior Media Relations Strategist, passed what it calls its ‘Buildup Aurora’ measure. Buildup Aurora was designed to maintain streets in the city’s 35 neighborhoods with “the greatest needs for street repairs.” Not only will it address road conditions but also sidewalks and curbs due or overdue for maintenance.

Aurora, like other cities in Colorado, shares its main roads with the state and nation. Colfax Avenue, as an example, is also U.S. Highway 40 and, at nearly 50 miles in length, the longest single commercial road in the entire United States. It stretches from Golden on the west to Headlight Road in Strasburg on the east. It also takes a beating in sheer traffic volume.

The Denver Regional Council of Governments estimated that Aurora’s stretch of Colfax handles nearly 40,000 vehicles a day. Rarely does a single weekday go by without some roadwork being performed on it, much of it being pothole maintenance. The street, once the main east-west route before the interstate system was built, crosses municipalities. Denver’s stretch of Colfax Avenue begins at Sheridan Boulevard, once referred to as State Highway 95, and ends at Galena Street in Aurora where it extends to Strasburg.

While most understand what a pothole is, Brannan’s official and more benign description is “a road defect less than 24 inches in diameter” that can usually be repaired with a hot asphalt mixture. A victim of a pothole has a far more colorful and angered way of describing one.

A pothole can cause a wide degree of emotions and inspired language, not simply English, either. They can also be one-way tickets to car repair shops. Beyond hitting one, they can also be expensive causing tire blowouts, misalignments or worse. But expecting a city to pay the cost of repairs is another matter. Whether a claim with the city is successful is a determination made by the city. Pursuing it may mean hiring a lawyer. For many if not most, it’s often not worth the time nor expense.

The state’s budget for maintaining Colorado’s roadways is $285 million. It covers everything from road and bridge improvements to, yes, potholes. “CDOT maintenance crews,” said CDOT spokesperson Tamara Rollison, “are continuous- ly repairing pavements, bridges, guardrails and other assets.” But, because of what Rollison calls “a challenging year due to a record winter season which was hard on pavements and caused some significant damage,” an extra $25 million for road work was allocated by the state.

While the past year’s winter certainly paid off handsomely for the state’s water shortfall and ending the drought, it did nothing for its roads. When the snow that filled cracks in the roads melted then froze again and repeated the process each night—sometimes for long stretches at a time—smaller or at least manageable cracks expanded turning into potholes. Very simply, it’s one of nature’s natural cycles.

In Aurora, according to national ratings, the weather and simple aging, has created a road system judged to be “fair or below” optimal conditions. In fact, 58 percent of the city’s roads fall into this category. But the rating does not make Aurora’s more than 4,000 miles of roads unique or necessarily hazardous. The entire state faces a similar challenge.

President Biden’s signing of the Infrastructure Bill will provide some relief for aging or poorly maintained roadways and bridges, along with a number of other things. Ideally, the $110 billion measure will raise the state’s ranking above its current 37th place among the country’s best maintained road system.

According to the Department of Transportation, the top three states for best road conditions are Idaho, Wyoming and Tennessee. Each has a rating of at least 94 percent in the ranking of acceptable conditions. The DOT ranks Rhode Island, New Jersey and Hawaii as the worst. Colorado ranks 37th.

Pothole repair in the U.S. is no small thing. Fixing potholes across the U.S. costs approximately $3 billion. The average cost of a repair caused by potholes is estimated at around $600. But adding up the total cost of vehicle repairs caused by these roadway blemishes is huge. The DOT estimates that national bill for this comes in at more than $26 billion annually.