2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 25 - PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT (§§ 25-1-101 — 25-59-106) › ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL (§§ 25-6.5-101 — 25-18.9-105) › Article 8 - WATER QUALITY CONTROL (§§ 25-8-101 — 25-8-1008) › Part 5 - PERMIT SYSTEM (§§ 25-8-501 — 25-8-509) › Section 25-8-501.1 - Permit required for point source water pollution control - definitions - housed commercial swine feeding operations - legislative declaration

(1)
The people of the state of Colorado hereby find, determine, and declare that the advent of large housed commercial swine feeding operations in Colorado has presented new challenges to ensuring that the quality of the state's environment is preserved and protected. As distinguished from more traditional operations that historically have characterized Colorado's livestock industry, large housed swine feeding operations use significant amounts of process water for flushing and disposing of swine waste, commonly store this waste in large impoundments, and dispose of it through land application. The waste storage, handling and disposal by such operations are particularly odorous and offensive. The people further find that it is necessary to ensure that the storage and land application of waste by housed commercial swine feeding operations is done in a responsible manner, so as not to adversely impact Colorado's valuable air, land and water resources.
(2)
As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a)
"Agronomic rate of application" means the rate of application of nutrients to plants that is necessary to satisfy the plants' nutritional requirements while strictly minimizing the amount of nutrients that run off to surface waters or which pass below the root zone of the plants, as specified by the most current published fertilizer suggestions of the Colorado state university cooperative extension service for the plants, or most closely related plant type, to which the nutrients are applied.
(b)
"Housed commercial swine feeding operation" means a housed swine feeding operation that is capable of housing eight hundred thousand pounds or more of live animal weight of swine at any one time or is deemed a commercial operation under local zoning or land use regulations. Two or more housed swine confined feeding operations shall be considered to comprise a single housed commercial swine feeding operation if they are under common or affiliated ownership or management, and are adjacent to or utilize a common area or system for manure disposal, are integrated in any way, are located or discharge within the same watershed or into watersheds that are hydrologically connected, or are located on or discharge onto land overlying the same groundwater aquifer.
(c)
"Housed swine feeding operation" means the practice of raising swine in buildings, or other enclosed structures wherein swine of any size are fed for forty-five days or longer in any twelve-month period, and crop or forage growth or production is not sustained in the area of confinement.
(d)
"Process wastewater" means any process-generated wastewater used in a housed commercial swine feeding operation, including water used for feeding, flushing, or washing, and any water or precipitation that comes into contact with any manure, urine, or any product used in or resulting from the production of swine.
(3)
No person shall operate, construct, or expand a housed commercial swine feeding operation without first having obtained an individual discharge permit from the division.
(4)
On or before March 31, 1999, the commission shall promulgate rules necessary to ensure the issuance and effective administration and enforcement of permits under this section by July 1, 1999. Such rules shall incorporate the preceding subsection (3) and shall, at a minimum, require:
(a)
That the owner or operator of a housed commercial swine feeding operation must obtain division approval of construction, operations and swine waste management plans that, for any land waste application, includes a detailed agronomic analysis. Said plans shall employ the best available waste management practices, provide for remediation of residual soil and groundwater contamination, and ensure that disposal of solid or liquid waste to the soil not exceed agronomic rates of application.
(b)
That appropriate setbacks for maintaining water quality be established for land waste application areas and waste impoundments;
(c)
That waste impoundments or manure stock piles shall not be located within a one-hundred-year floodplain unless proper flood proofing measures are designed and constructed;
(d)
That the owner or operator of the housed commercial swine feeding operation shall provide financial assurances for the final closure of the housed commercial swine feeding operation, the conduct of any necessary postclosure activities, the undertaking of any corrective action made necessary by migration of contaminants from the housed commercial swine feeding operation into the soil and groundwater, or cleanup of any spill or breach;
(e)
That the owner or operator of a housed commercial swine feeding operation shall ensure that no solid or liquid waste generated by it shall be applied to land by any person at a rate that exceeds, in amount or duration, the agronomic rate of application; and
(f)
That, because waste storage and disposal by housed commercial swine feeding operations pose particular jeopardy for state trust lands, in light of the mandate in the Colorado constitution, article IX, section 10, that state land board trust lands be held in trust and be protected and enhanced to promote long-term productivity and sound stewardship, the construction, operations and waste management plans approved for housed commercial swine feeding operations on such lands, shall not permit the degradation of the physical attributes or value of any state trust lands.
(5)
Any spill or contamination by a housed commercial swine feeding operation shall be reported immediately to the division and the county or district public health agency for the county in which the housed commercial swine feeding operation is conducted, and, within twenty-four hours after the spill or contamination, a written report shall be filed with the division and the county or district public health agency for the county in which the housed commercial swine feeding operation is conducted.
(6)
Housed commercial swine feeding operations shall submit to the division and the county or district public health agency quarterly, comprehensive monitoring reports and agronomic analyses that demonstrate that the operation has land-applied solid and liquid waste at no greater than agronomic rates. The division shall require the sampling and monitoring of chemical and appropriate biological parameters to protect the quality and existing and future beneficial uses of groundwater including, at a minimum, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, and salts. At a minimum, the monitoring program shall include quarterly samples, analysis, and reporting of the groundwater, soils within the root zone, and soils beneath the root zone within each waste application site, and shall also include monitoring to ensure that no excessive seepage occurs from any waste impoundments.
(7)
Repealed.
(8)
The division shall enforce the provisions of this section and shall take immediate enforcement action against any housed commercial swine feeding operation that has exceeded the agronomic rate limit of this section. In addition, any person who may be adversely affected by a housed commercial swine feeding operation may enforce these provisions directly against the operation by filing a civil action in the district court in the county in which the person resides.
(9)
These provisions shall not preclude any local government from imposing requirements more restrictive than those contained in this section.
Initiated 98: Entire section added, effective upon proclamation of the Governor, December 30, 1998. L. 2007: (7) repealed, p. 1454, § 2, effective July 1. L. 2010: (5) and (6) amended, (HB 10-1422), ch. 419, p. 2104, §119, effective August 11.
(1) This section was contained in an initiated measure that was adopted by the people at the general election held November 3, 1998. The measure enacting this section was effective upon the proclamation of the Governor, December 30, 1998.
(2) The vote count on the measure at the general election held November 3, 1998, was as follows:
FOR: 790,852
AGAINST: 438,873