Training Opportunity: WaterNow State Revolving Fund

The Safe Drinking Water Program is sharing a training opportunity on behalf of our training partners WaterNow. The webinar will take place February 10, 2022 at 11am MT and registration is free. Click here to register. 

 “WaterNow is excited to bring to you a webinar to deepen local Colorado water leaders' understanding of the fundamental mechanics of the State Revolving Fund program and to dig into the details about how the flexibility of SRF loans can help finance innovative, climate & drought resilient water infrastructure projects. We will also cover the complementary loan and grant programs offered by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. 

Our webinar will provide background on funding offered by Colorado's SRF program and CWCB for local elected and appointed officials, as well as utility management and staff, to empower them with the know-how to consider these financing mechanisms for their next water infrastructure project. 

Our panel of experts will provide in-depth reviews of the SRF program to provide insight into community-specific application of the SRF requirements. We'll also, of course, leave plenty of time for your questions.

Our speakers include:

- Jim Griffiths, Finance Director, Colorado Water Resources & Power Development Authority

- Matt Stearns, Project Development Engineer, Colorado Water Conservation Board

- Victoria Arling, Colorado Basin Program Manager, WaterNow Alliance

- Caroline Koch, Water Policy Director, WaterNow Alliance”

➽ Kyra Gregory, Drinking Water Training Specialist

Test Your Emergency Planning: Upcoming CoWARN Functional Exercise

Click here to register for the free event
Click here to view the FE agenda 

The Colorado Water and Wastewater Agency Response Network (CoWARN) is hosting a free virtual EPA-sponsored communication-based functional exercise (FE) for water and wastewater system owners and operators, emergency management staff, and response partners from local, state and federal agencies. The virtual FE will provide an opportunity for participants to exercise emergency response capabilities in response to a hypothetical winter storm scenario affecting water and wastewater systems. Visit http://www.cowarn.org/ for more information about this mutual aid network. Once registered you will receive a link to join the event, which will use the Zoom virtual platform. Training units will be offered for the training for drinking water and wastewater operators. The FE facilitators, Horsley Witten Group (EPA Contractor), will contact you to discuss the FE in further detail. 

Who should attend?
This FE is open to CoWARN member and non-member utilities and response partners (e.g., emergency management, healthcare facilities) interested in learning more about water sector mutual aid.

Contact information:
CoWARN related questions can be directed to Kyra Gregory (CoWARN administrator), Colorado Department of Health and Environment, by email kyra.gregory@state.co.us. 
Functional Exercise related questions can be directed to Will Keefer (wkeefer@horsleywitten.com) of the Horsley  Witten Group (EPA Contractor) who is assisting with the planning and facilitation of the event.  

Request for input from members: 
As a part of the functional exercise on 3/22 the CoWARN steering committee would like to engage with CoWARN members that that requested a CoWARN activation in the last 5 years. If you are interested in speaking about your experience at the functional exercise to share lessons learned please reach out to CoWARN's administrator Kyra Gregory at kyra.gregory@state.co.us.

CoWARN Update Early 2022

What is CoWARN?

Colorado’s Water/Wastewater Agency Response Network (CoWARN) is a mutual aid network with a “utilities helping utilities” approach to emergency response and management. Who is more likely to have that specialized pump or valve your system needs to get back on line in a hurry? That’s right, another water or wastewater system. So join your peers in CoWARN and become part of the network dedicated to keeping our communities healthy, sanitary and safe.

CoWARN helps water and wastewater utilities :

• Prepare for the next natural or human-caused emergency.

• Organize response according to established requirements

• Share personnel, equipment, and other resources statewide, during emergencies by agreement.

How to become a CoWARN member?

Download the Mutual Aid Agreement (Adobe® Acrobat® Reader is required to view the document). Then print, sign, and submit the agreement. You can submit the completed form by 1) scanning and emailing it to the CoWARN Website Administrator, 2) mailing it to the CoWARN Website Administrator, or 3) faxing it to the CoWARN Website Administrator.

Leadership update 

CoWARN begins 2022 with our new CoWARN chair Tobi Blanchard (Sr. Emergency Management Specialist with Colorado Springs Utilities) and vice chair Mike Wolf (Assistant General Manager for Todd Creek Metro Village). Angelo Carrier, our previous chair, will be stepping down effective this month and will continue to sit on the CoWARN steering committee. Thank you Angelo for your 5+ years of service as chair for this vital mutual aid network. This program runs  completely on a volunteer basis on behalf of the CoWARN members. CDPHE serves only as an administrative role and helps with funding too. We appreciate all of your time and support to direct CoWARN and keep us all moving towards greater resilience for the water/wastewater sector in our state. 

 

CoWARN Needs You! 

CoWARN is seeking new volunteers for its steering committee!

What does this entail?

CoWARN steering committee members help make decisions about the direction and scope of CoWARN’s activities. They are a group of volunteers who meet regularly to discuss topics of interest and delegate tasks to the CoWARN administrator. 

What is the time commitment?

The steering committee meets every other month. The meetings are scheduled for an hour and a half. Outside of the meetings there is little to no time commitment. The CoWARN administrator may run draft communications and ideas by the steering committee to get their input a few times a year. 

Who should join the steering committee?

Anyone who is interested in becoming a part of the steering committee and is involved with an institution that is a member of CoWARN is welcome to join! We especially encourage those associated with utilities throughout the state to join the steering committee. 

How do I get involved?

To join the steering committee please contact the CoWARN administrator:

Kyra Gregory 

kyra.gregory@state.co.us

303-908-7519 

If you are unsure if this is the right fit for you please feel free to contact Kyra and she will invite you to an upcoming meeting so you can get an idea of what we do.

➽ Kyra Gregory Drinking Water Training Specialist and CoWARN Administrator

Recent activities in the operator certification program

The beginning of a new year is a great time to review recent decisions and activities in the operator certification program that may affect operators in the coming months.

1. Course approvals for 2022

Courses approved for training unit (TU) credit have a calendar-year life-span. In 2021, over one thousand courses were approved for TUs and over six hundred of those were available as on-demand, online training. Although those courses expired on December 31, 2021, almost eight hundred new and renewed courses have already been approved for calendar-year 2022. Of those courses, more than four hundred are on-demand, online training. 

New courses will continue to be added to the course catalog throughout the year, but the majority will be approved by the end of the first quarter of 2022. The CCWP web has instructions for finding approved online courses for TUs.

It is worth noting that the course catalog automatically defaults to the current year offerings. 

2. Updated water Mandatory Regulatory Training (MRT) course

Operators who renew or upgrade their certificates in 2022 must have evidence in their portal account that they completed an approved water and/or wastewater MRT course within the past three years. The MRT course must be appropriate for the category of certificate being renewed or upgraded (water MRT course for water treatment and distribution certificates, wastewater MRT course for wastewater treatment and collection certificates). As regulations change, the required content for the water and wastewater courses MRT are updated. This increases operator awareness of the most current requirements for water and wastewater facilities.

The water MRT course content was updated for 2022, but the wastewater MRT course did not require any modifications.

Operators who need to take a water and/or wastewater MRT course can use the course catalog search engine to find courses that have been approved to meet the MRT requirement. To find MRT courses, from the course catalog search screen, find “Additional Course Approvals:” then select “Approved for regulatory water training” and/or “Approved for regulatory wastewater training” then click search. This will return a list of courses approved for water and/or wastewater MRT. In addition, the program provides links on the CCWP web to free, on-demand, online water and wastewater MRT courses. 

3. Lawful presence requirement removed

In May 2021, the Colorado legislature repealed the statutory requirement for individuals holding state-issued licenses or certificates to verify that they are in the country lawfully. Therefore, the Water and Wastewater Facility Operators Certification Board amended Regulation 100 in September 2021 to remove the regulatory requirement for certified operators to verify their lawful presence in the United States.

Operators must still upload current documentation to their CCWP Portal accounts to verify identity, but applications no longer require a statement from applicants attesting to their lawful presence.

➽ Nancy Horan, Facility and Operator Outreach and Certification Board Liaison