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COLORADO SPRINGS RECEIVES $110,470 PENALTY FOR SEWAGE OVERFLOWS

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Lori Maldonado
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DENVER – The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Thursday imposed a $110,470 penalty against Colorado Springs Utilities for sanitary sewer overflows and resulting unauthorized discharges of pollutants into state waters.

Douglas H. Benevento, the Department of Public Health and Environment’s executive director, said: “The department takes these overflows very seriously and wants to see them stopped. While any system may have an occasional spill, we are requiring Colorado Springs Utilities to take all possible steps to minimize them.”

In the enforcement action signed Thursday, the department’s Water Quality Control Division ordered the utility by the end of the year to inspect 131 major sewer lines within its system that cross creeks as well as sewer lines that cross ditches and gullies. If any of those major lines pose an imminent threat of a release, repairs must be started within 36 hours of discovery and completed within one week. A plan for prioritizing and repairing the major sewer lines also is to be submitted to the department by January 31, 2006.

In a second, separate enforcement action, the department is finalizing a notice of violation to Colorado Springs Utilities for 13 releases of reclaimed water, covering a period of October 12, 2000, through July 31, 2005.

Reclaimed water is not raw sewage, but chlorinated water that has been treated for uses such as lawn irrigation and industrial process water. The department will use information about these 13 releases to determine the final penalty amount under this notice of violation.

The state health director also said that both actions taken Thursday now are subject to a 30-day formal public comment period. Comments can be submitted to the Water Quality Control Division via e-mail at scott.klarich@state.co.us.

The penalty covers 21 sewer overflows and two releases from electrical transformers that occurred within the Colorado Springs utility system between January 1, 2004, and October 4, 2005. Among those are several major sewage spills, including a 26,400-gallon spill on May 28, 2005, and a 98,800-gallon spill and a 218,750-gallon spill that occurred during a major hail storm on June 22, 2005.

The sewer spills flowed into tributaries to Fountain Creek, which flows south from Colorado Springs and then through the east side of Pueblo before it reaches the confluence with the Arkansas River.

Other key provisions of the enforcement order include:

• Colorado Springs Utilities must submit a stream crossing condition evaluation report and a monitoring/repair/rehabilitation priority plan for stream crossings located in its five major drainages to the Water Quality Control Division on or before January 31, 2006.
• Colorado Springs Utilities shall submit a stream crossing condition evaluation report and a monitoring/repair/rehabilitation priority plan for all remaining stream crossings in minor drainages to the Water Quality Control Division on or before June 30, 2006.
• Work on those stream crossings that are found to pose an imminent threat of a release must begin within 36 hours and be completed within one week of discovery. All sewer lines with serious defects crossing streams, that do not pose an imminent threat of a release, but do not conform to the department’s design criteria, must be upgraded by June 30, 2006.
• The utility must develop by December 31, 2005, a specific written plan and schedule to reduce acts of vandalism that could result in a sewage spill. The plan should include the employment of security systems; a community awareness program; and a reward program for persons who report vandals. The utility must evaluate its vandalism plan and program every two years and submit a written evaluation to the Department of Public Health and Environment.
• The utility must evaluate and revise its spill response plan by December 31, 2005, including spill notification procedures; spill response planning for its personnel; and the staging of response equipment at critical locations. This plan must be submitted to the Department of Public Health and Environment for review and approval.

As a result, the penalty calculations were based on the following:

1. The large raw sewage releases that occurred on June 22, 2005, were subject to the maximum $10,000 penalty for each event.
2. Sewage releases that were greater than 1,000 gallons were subject to a penalty of up to $7,500, considering whether they were caused by third-party vandalism.
3. Sewage releases that were less than 1,000 gallons were subject to a penalty calculated using the methodology described in the Department of Public Health and Environment’s established policy for effluent violations. Penalties for these events ranged from $3,674 to $6,256 per event.
4. Penalties to be assessed under the notice of violation for reclaimed water releases will be calculated using similar methodology.

In December 2003, the Department of Public Health and Environment entered a similar enforcement order against Colorado Springs Utilities for sewage spills that occurred between June 23, 1998, and November 11, 2003. The order imposed a penalty of $121,682, which the utility was directed to spend to make needed improvements.