Code of Colorado Regulations
1000 - Department of Public Health and Environment
1002 - Water Quality Control Commission (1002 Series)
5 CCR 1002-74 - REGULATION NO. 74 - BEAR CREEK WATERSHED CONTROL REGULATION
Section 5 CCR 1002-74.11 - STATEMENT OF BASIS, SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORITY AND PURPOSE (1996 REVISIONS)

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 5, March 10, 2024

The provisions of sections 25-8-202(1)(c) and (2); and 25-8-205; C.R.S., provide the specific statutory authority for adoption of the attached regulation. The Commission also adopted, in compliance with section 24-4-103(4) C.R.S., the following statement of basis and purpose.

BASIS AND PURPOSE

The Bear Creek Basin has been designated as the Bear Creek Watershed through the Denver Regional Council of Government's Clean Water Plan. The basin boundary has been modified to a watershed boundary with recognition of drainage from Park County into Jefferson County. The Jefferson County Mountain Water Quality Association, City of Lakewood and the Bear Creek Management Plan Committee have been formed into the Bear Creek Watershed Association. The Association is the management agency for the Bear Creek Watershed.

The Willowbrook Sanitation and Water District has transferred wastewater treatment to the Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District and no longer needs a phosphorus wasteload allocation. The Jefferson County R-1 School District is building a new Conifer High School which will have a wastewater treatment facility to serve all of the wastewater treatment requirements of the school district in the Conifer and Aspen Park area of Jefferson County. The existing wastewater treatment facility located at the Jefferson County Junior High School will be closed with the opening of the new Conifer High School Facility. The Junior High School facility has a phosphorus wasteload allocation of 30 pounds. The new Conifer High School Facility needs a phosphorus wasteload allocation of 125 pounds, therefore Jefferson County Schools requires an additional 95 pounds of phosphorus wasteload allocation. The proposed Geneva Glen Camp wastewater treatment facility needs a phosphorus wasteload allocation of five pounds for a new wastewater treatment facility. Additionally, this facility proposes to use land application as part of the treatment process.

Allocations of phosphorus or modifications to phosphorus wasteload allocations require a rulemaking hearing by the Commission. The Commission adopted changes to the phosphorus wasteload allocations in section 4.6.3 by allocating the Jefferson County School District 125 pounds, Geneva Glen five pounds, and transferring 100 pounds to the reserve pool from the previous 240 pound allocation that was available to Willowbrook Sanitation and Water District. The other 140 pounds of the previous 240 allocation that was available to the Willowbrook Water and Sanitation District has been removed from the total point source phosphorus wasteload of 5,395 pounds per year, which decreases the annual allowable wasteload to 5,255 pounds. The Bear Creek Watershed Association recommended and the Commission concurred that wasteload allocation processes and reporting be consistent between adopted phosphorus control regulations. The land disposal and land application wasteload definitions and determinations as adopted in the Cherry Creek Reservoir Control Regulation have been incorporated into the Bear Creek Watershed Control Regulation. This will allow the Association and the Division to more efficiently monitor and report land disposal or land treatment wasteloads.

Two changes were made in the requirements for the Bear Creek Watershed annual report to the Commission. First, the annual report will be submitted to the Commission on or before May 1 of each year which covers the previous calendar year. Second, in response to a concern by one of the parties to the hearing, the Commission adopted language that requires the watershed annual report to document monitoring data quality assurance/quality control procedures for ambient water quality monitoring as well as monitoring of wastewater treatment facility effluent. The Bear Creek Watershed Association will review quality assurance/quality control procedures through their regular meeting process.

One of the parties to the hearing requested that the Bear Creek Watershed Association study the costs and benefits of expanding the implementation of water reuse methods in this watershed. Inclusion of requirements to study water reuse was determined to be beyond the authority of the Commission. In adopting this revision to the regulation, the Commission recognized the intent of the Bear Creek Watershed Association to pursue the development of a policy for use in the Association's review of applications for site approval of domestic wastewater treatment facilities. This policy will address potential water reuse and other relevant environmental issues.

The water quality monitoring program for the Bear Creek Watershed was evaluated by the Association and the Division. An additional permanent surface water monitoring station has been added to lower Bear Creek. A special surface water monitoring program associated with Colorado Department of

Transportation construction activities along the U.S. 285 corridor through the Turkey Creek drainage has also been added to the monitoring program. This construction program is forecast to last 20 years with construction activities occurring in a series of smaller phases. Ongoing water quality monitoring is needed to characterize this large scale construction activity. The Colorado Department of Transportation has become a participant in the Bear Creek Watershed Association.

Clear Creek County has become a member of the Association and they are a participant in the water quality monitoring program, with responsibility for point and nonpoint sources in the watershed.

PARTIES TO THE RULEMAKING HEARING