The Colorado Department of Transportation has run afoul with state environmental regulators for allowing dirt and debris to wash off road projects and muck up streams.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment cited CDOT for failing to plan, manage and inspect storm-water runoff at highway projects in 10 counties, including Arapahoe, Adams, Douglas, Elbert, Larimer and Mesa.
At one site in Pueblo County, environment inspectors found construction debris from a road project dumped on the banks of Salt Creek.
At a Boulder County project on U.S. 36, sediment was being flushed into Boulder Creek as silt fences were submerged and soil was piled on the creek’s banks.
“No interim or permanent stabilization practices were in place to control erosion, as required,” the inspector wrote.
Doug Benevento, director of the state health department, said he was confident that CDOT would quickly resolve the problems identified in the notice of violation.
“If you look at the standards management that CDOT has for storm water, it’s very high,” Benevento said.
“It’s apparent that in these 10 cases, the implementation didn’t meet expectations set by management,” Benevento said.
The Transportation Department was only recently notified of violations and was in the process of preparing a response, said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.
“I think it’s important to note that the majority of violations that we’re talking about concern a failure to document certain things and other paperwork as opposed to actually discharging into streams,” Stegman said.
State environmental regulators, however, allege that the dirt and debris from road projects polluted at least four waterways, including the Colorado River in Grand County, an unnamed tributary to Newlin Gulch in Douglas County, Boulder Creek, and the Purgatoire River in Las Animas County.
In recent years, state environmental regulators have stepped up enforcement of Clean Water Act requirements that construction projects control erosion and sediment.
Last year, the health department fined contractors $215,000 on T-REX – the Transportation Expansion Project on Interstate 25 and Interstate 225 in southeast metro Denver.
The contractors, the state said, allowed runoff into the South Platte River from the 19-mile-long construction site.
That is the largest cash penalty for a storm-water violation in Colorado related to construction activity.
In that case, the health department issued the storm-water permit to CDOT’s contractors, making them ultimately responsible.
The most recent round of violations was directed at CDOT because it is the permit-holder.
Stegman said CDOT is considering launching a new training initiative to educate its contractors about storm-water rules.
“We want to make sure that everyone is educated and understands what the requirements are,” Stegman said.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
