Protect Colorado Waters: Support HB24-1379

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With 50% of Colorado’s state waters left without meaningful protections due to a recent Supreme Court ruling, it's time for the State Legislature to pass comprehensive legislation. Help us fight for clean water by sending a message to your legislator now!

The Trump Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision overturned decades of clean water policy and eliminated Federal Clean Water Act protection for many critical Colorado wetlands -- including marshes, swamps, bogs, and high mountain wetlands that play crucial roles in water filtration, flood control, and habitat preservation. The decision also removed protection from many other important state waters such as intermittent and ephemeral streams.

Because of the Supreme Court’s short-sighted decision, the Colorado Legislature needs to establish a Colorado-based permit program to protect these vital state waters. The Legislature must act promptly to provide the necessary authority, enforcement, and funding to stand up a state level permit program protecting Colorado’s waterways and drinking water from pollution associated with activities such as mining and construction activities. The legislation should provide substantive and procedural protections that are, at a minimum, functionally equivalent to those in place prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA. These protections should serve as a statutory floor, not a ceiling.

A comprehensive state permit system would make sure that developers and miners and other industries pay their fair share to protect these waters. It would also help ensure that permits issued for dredge & fill activities contained conditions necessary to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts to our vital wetlands and other state waters.

Sixty-seven percent of voters across party lines statewide say it is extremely or very important for Colorado to consider state oversight of some wetlands and streams to reduce the impacts from development, industry and mining. There is strong bipartisan support for establishing state protections. 84% of Democrats, 72% of Independents and 57% of Republicans were supportive.

HB 24-1379, introduced by Speaker McCluskie and supported by the Polis Administration, while not perfect, establishes a comprehensive permit system that would regulate dredge & fill activities in the vast majority of state waters, including those critical wetlands and other waters left unprotected after the US Supreme Court’s decision. We thank Speaker McCluskie for her diligent efforts to develop and introduce this critical legislation; and we urge all Sierra Club members and legislators to support passage of HB 24-1379 with no weakening amendments.

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Support HB 24-1379 - Protect CO Waters

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I urge your support of HB 24-1379: Regulate Dredge & Fill Activities in State Waters as vital legislation to protect Colorado’s precious and endangered waterways. The Trump Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision overturned decades of clean water policy and eliminated Federal Clean Water Act protection for many critical Colorado wetlands -- including marshes, swamps, bogs, and high mountain wetlands that play crucial roles in water filtration, flood control, and habitat preservation. The Polis Administration estimates that, because of the Sackett decision, up to 50% of Colorado’s state waters no longer have Clean Water Act protection. Because of the Supreme Court’s short-sighted decision, the Colorado Legislature needs to promptly establish a comprehensive Colorado-based permit program to protect these vital state waters. HB 24-1379, introduced by Speaker McCluskie is a positive, necessary, and much-appreciated step toward closing the huge Federal regulatory gap left by the US Supreme Court’s Sackett decision – and I urge your support for this important bill without any weakening amendments. HB 24-1379 covers a wide range of state waters, including the vast majority of our vital wetlands. The bill’s broad coverage is essential in order to protect the wide range of Colorado state waters and the many ecological, social, and economic benefits they provide to Coloradoans. Speaker McCluskie and the Polis Administration have worked closely with multiple stakeholder groups to craft compromise legislation that crafts a workable and efficient dredge & fill permit system that carefully balances environmental and social concerns with development demands and interests. I, along with many other Coloradoans across the political spectrum, applaud their good-faith efforts in this difficult task. Of course, like any compromise, the bill is not perfect. For instance, I wish the bill contained more robust requirements for evaluating and addressing cumulative impacts; provisions that require large-scale linear projects (e.g., pipelines and transmission lines) to be treated and evaluated as the single impactful projects they are, rather than allowing such large projects to be segmented and evaluated as multiple, less-impactful projects. I also wish the bill contained a citizen suit provision – similar to those existing in numerous other states – that would allow citizens to seek enforcement against flagrant violators when regulators fail to carry out their enforcement responsibilities. The absence of the above provisions represents significant compromises made to help ensure the bill’s passage -- and to help ensure that other key provisions remain in the bill. While these compromises may be politically necessary, I urge you to keep in mind that the environmental community has already given up much in order to obtain passage of this otherwise comprehensive and beneficial legislation. Legislators must resist pressure from development interests to further limit the bill’s scope and protections -- for example, by excluding additional categories of “state waters” from the bill’s permit process or by creating additional exceptions for various types of “dredge and fill” activities. In conclusion, I strongly urge you to support passage of HB 24-1379, without any weakening amendments, at both the Committee and Floor votes.

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