The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission hedged on adopting water-temperature standards Wednesday but pledged to work toward putting binding rules in place by 2007.
Saying the science was far from perfect, the governor-appointed commission adopted a set of temperature standards that are slated to take effect at the end of 2007.
Industrial and sewage-treatment plants that discharge wastewater into streams will probably never have to meet those standards, however, because the commission says it plans to adopt another set of rules that will replace the ones voted on Wednesday.
“We are incredibly disappointed the commission refused to adopt enforceable standards today,” said Melinda Kassen, director of Trout Unlimited’s Western water project. “Colorado’s got a problem that’s not going to be addressed anytime soon.”
Temperature standards were implemented in Colorado in 1979, but there are no data on how the numbers were derived or what they mean.
The state Water Quality Control Division has been working to develop new standards for more than a year, meeting with environmental groups, cities and industries.
While there is a broad consensus that new standards are needed to protect fish and their habitat – which are most vulnerable to water-temperature fluctuations – there was no agreement on whether the adopted standards are sufficient.
Some industries argued that it would be too expensive for them to monitor for temperature violations and questioned whether they could make modifications that would ensure they wouldn’t violate new standards.
Some commissioners said before the vote that they couldn’t support adopting a new standard without more confidence in the science that helped shape it.
“I think somebody’s going to be hurt if we do a number,” said Commissioner Chris Kraft. “Somebody’s going to get hurt.”
Still, other commissioners believed that division staff gave them a defensible standard to build on.
The commissioners agreed to support the Water Quality Control Division proposal to assemble an expert panel to try to come up with a revised temperature standard that protects fish while giving dischargers a workable set of limits.
Doug Benevento, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said he hopes the commission’s action Wednesday brings the various parties back to the negotiating table to come up with an even better temperature standard.
“It’s a small step, but I believe it’s going to make a difference in coming up with science we can all agree on.”
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
