2019 Budget and Services Update
In August 2017 I had the unfortunate duty of reducing Safe Drinking Water Program staff and service levels to avoid a budget crisis. Staff and service reductions directly raise public health risks. The main cause for this problem is that over the last several years funding levels for the program have been relatively flat while program costs rise. This inverse relationship between program revenue and expenses is not sustainable in the long-term. At the time, projections showed that not addressing the financial shortfall would result in severe staff and service level reductions by the end of 2018. The service reductions impacted the entire program and involved some key activities including lead and unregulated contaminants.
We were successful in avoiding a budget crisis in 2018. In fact, we saved even more money than originally projected. Additionally, in 2018 Colorado’s funding increased significantly for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) program with support from the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority. Our federal DWSRF grant rose from about $14 million in 2017 to $22 million in 2018. This increase happened for two reasons:
- Congress decided to raise the national grant from about $863 million to $1.13 billion. Colorado’s share or percentage of the capitalization grant increased from about 1.7 percent to 2.0 percent as a result of the 2015 Drinking Water Needs Survey.
- Fortunately, Congress elected to maintain the higher funding level in 2019 as well. This could change in the future, so we are not counting on that increase as permanent. However, the increase in Colorado’s grant percentage will stay in place for four years, which is great news!
With these funding changes we made progress in restoring program services beginning in July 2018 and should be able to restore services to 2016 levels later in 2019. Our 2016 staffing levels were still significantly short of the state’s resource needs based on the model developed by the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) and EPA. Additionally, that model did not account for the additional pressures on program resources that resulted in the aftermath of Flint, Michigan’s problems with lead and national issues with unregulated contaminants particularly per- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Unless the increased funding is sustained, our long-term problem is not solved, but our financial situation is not as dire for the next few years. However, program resources issues associated with lead, PFAS, manganese and other unregulated contaminants plus new rules like perchlorate and the new lead rule plus demands for new services like direct potable reuse still need to be addressed.
We appreciate the conversations and support we had from stakeholders discussions that occurred in 2017 and 2018 and will continue to provide updates in the future, especially as options emerge to address this funding problem.
➽ Ron Falco, Safe Drinking Water Program Manager
