Submitting a coaching request has never been easier!

The water sector is more engaged now than ever before. With evolving regulations and emerging contaminants, the way we treat and distribute safe drinking water is constantly transforming. Water system owners and operators are expected to stay informed in real time as new technologies are implemented and new findings arise. Public Water Systems throughout Colorado each have varying capabilities and challenges to meet the changing compliance standards and keep up with the daily operations and maintenance. To take action in aiding systems and continuing compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Colorado Department of Public Health’s Water Quality Control Division offers free customized coaching and assistance through the Local Assistance Unit (LAU). This program provides technical assistance to public water systems that request support using the new WQCD Coaching Request Form. 

*Please Note: There is a new google form link to submit a coaching request. The previous formsite link is no longer available and will redirect you to the current form linked above.    

Who should submit a Coaching Request form?

If you are a water system administrator, operator, owner, or decision maker seeking assistance to increase your Technical, Managerial and Financial (TMF) capacities our coaches are available. TMF topics LAU coaches specialize in include: 

• Meeting and understanding regulatory compliance 
• Water resource management
• System organization and planning
• Operator certification
• Asset management and Operations and Maintenance Planning 
• Navigating grant and loan application and implementation

Specific examples of coaching requests that can be submitted include:

• Drinking water systems seeking additional support within the water sector.
• New or current system owners needing help hiring and defining roles and responsibilities for an Operator In Responsible Charge.
• Systems encountering enforcement order requirements.
• Assistance with public notices.
• Navigating backflow or storage tank plan requirements.
• Support creating and managing a sampling schedule.
• Preparing for or responding to a Sanitary Survey
• Capital improvement plans, emergency response plans or monitoring plan assistance.
• Guidance on submitting documents, the CDPHE website, and identifying funding opportunities.

The Local Assistance Unit encourages the use of this valuable service provided throughout the state of Colorado for public water systems. Coaches offer compliance courses, direct assistance, onsite visits and arrange plans to help systems achieve or maintain compliance. Whether in a small rural town or a larger municipality, our goal remains to upkeep the culture of health and ensure communities have access to safe, reliable drinking water.

• To learn more about how the LAU can support your system visit the Aquatalk article: How can the Local Assistance unit help you?
• To learn more about TMF capacity please visit the Aquatalk article: Capacity– why is it important, and what can I do about it?

Ready to get started? Submit a WQCD Coaching Request form here for tailored coaching sessions specific to your system's needs. 

➽Priscila Lopez,  Excellence Coach

Wildfire Planning and Recovery Playbook - 2025 Updates!

After a wet spring and variable monsoon season, wildfire season is again upon us in Colorado. As many of you are aware, our public water systems and local communities face a diverse and significant array of challenges when planning, responding, and recovering from wildfires. The best time to start planning for wildfires is right now, in advance of fires.

The Water Quality Control Division (WQCD), along with many state, federal, and local partners, have released a revised and updated version of our Wildfire Planning and Recovery Playbook, available on our Source Water Assessment and Protection website.  Several authors also hosted a webinar on July 25th, with the slide presentation and a recording available.

Pre-fire planning, response, and recovery is a team effort, and requires coordination across multiple jurisdictions, and administrative and physical boundaries. Each community wildfire event may present a unique set of circumstances that must be understood and conveyed to effectively navigate wildfire incidents. The centerpiece of the playbook is the comprehensive critical contacts list, outlining necessary points of contact along with each representative’s roles and responsibilities within the planning, response, and recovery process. Below is an example of the critical contacts list contained in the playbook.

The playbook also provides various actionable steps through each phase of the fire cycle, from planning through recovery.  Examples include identifying your values at risk, forming a recovery group and identifying partners, understanding prefire actions and resources, and roles and responsibilities of partners throughout the different phases of a wildfire incident. The playbook also includes 2 full pages of links to additional resources, including a list of funding programs and technical assistance partners.

The playbook is concise, usable, and accessible. The target audience for this playbook is public water systems, municipalities, counties, and tribes. The updated version reflects lessons learned from recent urban and suburban wildfires and the new Wildfire Ready Watersheds framework from the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Please contact the source water protection team at cdphe.wqswap@state.co.us with any questions or for more information.

➽ Robert Murphy, CPSS, Source Water Protection Program Coordinator

➽ Kristen Hughes, Source Water Protection Specialist

➽ John Duggan, Source Water & Emerging Contaminants Unit Manager

Colorado Water Loss Initiative: Training and Technical Assistance for Water Loss Control

Water loss is water that is lost in a municipal distribution system between treatment and consumption. There are two types of water loss that lead to lost revenue and resources for systems and customers, real loss (leaky pipes) and apparent loss (metering inaccuracies, data handling errors). Real water loss typically occurs before any water meters, which are often located as the water enters buildings. This means that a utility is paying for all the cost of transporting the water from source to treatment plus treatment and distribution costs, but getting no revenue in return. 

Globally, water losses from drinking water supply networks account for 9 billion gallons a day of water use. Cost effective water loss management reduces cost and increases revenue, which improves a systems bottom line and better serves its customers. The Colorado Water Loss Initiative (CWLI) is a program developed by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) that provides training and technical assistance to water providers. In November 2023, the Colorado Water Conservation Board instituted an annual water loss reporting requirement for systems supplying at least 2,000 acre feet of water per year to their customers. The CWLI was established to provide a comprehensive training program for systems as part of the Colorado Water Plan strategic objective to support water management activities for all water providers and drive water loss implementation to address future water needs.  The benefit to you, a training course on how to identify water loss, collect water loss data, audit and validate data, along with technical assistance to develop solutions to decrease water loss in your system. 

CWLI Training Program

The CWLI offers a training program to assist systems in learning the AWWA Free Audit Software and implementing the American Water Works Association (AWWA) M36 methodology to quantify water loss. Once systems have completed the data collection, auditing, and validation phase of training, they are then provided technical assistance opportunities to implement controls and tools to minimize water loss. Technical assistance can include activities such as meter testing and design analysis or billing data analysis and prorating. Grant assistance is available to program participants to remedy prioritized water loss interventions that were identified through the program.  

Who can benefit from the training?

All drinking water systems. Do you have a small system and aren’t required to report annual losses but still interested in water loss? No problem, small systems can benefit from the water loss program and are encouraged to register. Water loss best management practices can help all systems save water, money, prepare for water supply shortages, and prepare for future climate impacts. All systems will learn to take the appropriate steps toward effective water loss control management. 

How much is it? And where do I register for the program?

The program and materials are offered at no cost and are available to all eligible drinking water staff. See the below resources to learn more about the program

• Video interviewing participants about their experience
• CWCB Water Talk Podcast - CWLI staff discusses the program
• Register here for the program

Interested in helping to improve water loss control and management? Join the CWLI Committee!

The Colorado Water Loss Control & Management Committee was formally established in December 2023 by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The committee's objective is to improve water loss control and management by planning water loss strategies, trade technical information, inform water loss policy discussions, train and educate water utilities on water loss, and support water loss goals of the Colorado Water Conservation Board. You can find more information at the Colorado Water Loss Control & Management Committee  website.  

➽ Angela Green Garcia, Drinking Water Training Specialist

➽ Kevin Reidy, DNR, Senior Water Efficiency Specialist 

Asset Management - Manage Your System Optimally

As systems prepare to submit their Lead Service Line Inventories (LSLI) this October, it has become abundantly clear that the water sector needs to put more resources into identifying what resources and assets they have and where they are located. Ideally, a bulk of the LSLI should have been completed using documentation. However, many systems lack records for their distribution systems. This gap in asset inventory is making the task of documenting their service line material types more costly and difficult. In the past many systems have taken a reactive approach, - “when it breaks, we fix it”, to manage their system. However, with the changing regulatory requirements, increasing financial hardships, and increasing climate and resource challenges, it has become necessary to plan ahead to ensure the health of public water systems into the future. It is necessary to know what resources you have and maximize their usefulness.  

Asset Management (AM) is a proactive approach to managing a system’s infrastructure and capital assets. AM gives systems tools to optimize output at the lowest possible operating cost. It facilitates both short and long term success by prioritizing assets, estimating useful life, and enables more accurate budgeting. Taking an asset management approach allows systems to hone their operations and maintenance planning by prolonging asset life and improving decisions about asset rehabilitation, repair, and replacement. Systems are able to use resources when and where they are needed most ensuring maintenance on critical assets can be done and there is enough money to do it.

AM is a scalable, thoughtful approach to systems management and can be applicable to any size system. It can help with coordination across an organization to help ensure that the right work is done in the right order at the right time. 

Not sure where to start, feeling intimidated? Come to one of the free training sessions offered by the Local Assistance Unit (LAU). Asset management will be presented this summer during the State Revolving Fund (SRF) Regional Workshops in partnership with the Department of Local Affairs and the Grants and Loans Unit. Additionally, the LAU will be rolling out an asset management course as part of the regular course offerings in 2025. The Asset Management course curriculum will review the 5 core criteria of asset management and demonstrate how to apply each of them to your system. You will learn how to get started and review some tools to assist you in developing an asset management plan. No need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to AM, there are many tools and templates available that fit the needs of every sized system. 

Join us!

Asset Management: A Management Framework and the associated toolkit will be presented as part of the SRF Regional Workshops scheduled for:

• July 11, 2024 - Alamosa, CO - Adams State University 
• Register Here
• July 23, 2024 - Akron, CO - Akron Senior & Community Center 
• Register Here

The workshop will cover topics related to SRF basics, funding options for drinking water and waste water infrastructure, asset management planning and tools, current and upcoming regulations and much more.   

Can’t make a workshop and need assistance with asset management or capacity development?

The Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPHE) Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) has free capacity coaching available for public water systems through the Local Assistance Unit (LAU). A PWS can request assistance by filling out the Coaching Assistance Form. 

➽Angela Green Garcia, Drinking Water Training Specialist 

EPA Reallotment of Lead Funds helps Colorado

In order to address the critical need to replace lead service lines across the nation, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) included funding specific to lead service line inventory and removal projects for the State Revolving Fund Program. In 2022, Colorado received over $56 million for lead service line inventory and removal projects. However, in 2023 due to a change in how EPA allotted lead funds, many states including Colorado experienced a drastic cut in lead service line funding. In fact, the 2023 BIL lead service line funding for Colorado was cut by over 40%. This cut in funding is significant and means many Colorado systems may not be able to access this funding to replace lead service lines. However, earlier this year EPA announced that some state SRF programs did not need the lead service line funding allotted to them through the BIL. The states of Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington declined a total of $219 million of 2022 BIL lead service line funding. As a result, Colorado was able to apply for a portion of the unused funds, up to $4.86 million. Although it is not enough to make up for the funding cut, these additional funds will help Colorado to continue to meet the high demand for lead service line funding across the state. Colorado utilizes this funding in multiple ways to assist public water systems to inventory, plan, design, and complete removal of lead service lines. The SRF Program provides low interest loans as well as grants for eligible systems to complete construction to remove lead service lines. The Division has utilized the EPA lead service line funding to provide lead service line inventory grants and to develop a robust technical assistance program. The lead service line inventory grant program has awarded over $700,000 in grants. The technical assistance program provides services free of charge to complete lead service line inventory and to plan for lead service line removal. The Division encourages public water systems to contact these programs for assistance in inventory, planning, and removal of lead service lines. The SRF program can be contacted at SRF Program Contacts. Systems interested in the inventory grants and free technical assistance can contact the program at Colorado@LeadRemoval.info. Please note that systems that want free technical assistance need to apply to the program prior to May 15 by completing a service agreement.

➽ Mark Henderson Community Development and Partnership Section Manager