Urge Your Representative to Protect Colorado’s Wetlands and Streams
Earlier this month we told you about Colorado House Bill 24-1379, which would restore lost protections to Colorado’s wetlands and streams. HB-1379 establishes a program to protect all of Colorado’s critical state waters, while providing certainty and clarity for businesses and landowners. This legislation is urgently needed to safeguard our state’s rare wetlands and other waters that lost Clean Water Act protections in the wake of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Colorado has lost about 50 percent of our wetlands due to development since statehood, so protecting the wetlands that remain is a necessity. Healthy wetlands buffer communities from flooding, filter out pollutants from drinking water, and are vital to ensuring Colorado’s climate resilience.
Clean Water Action and our environmental allies are working tirelessly to ensure HB-1379 reaches Governor Polis’s desk for his signature this legislative session. Unfortunately, a competing bill backed by industry, Senate Bill 24-127, is also making its way through the State Legislature this week. Instead of restoring lost protections, SB-127 severely misses the mark and places many rare wetlands and other state waters on a path to destruction from development, mining, and other polluting industries. SB-127 lacks clear requirements for developers or other industries to avoid, minimize, and then mitigate harmful impacts to wetlands and streams. Please contact your state legislators today and urge them to support HB-1379 and to oppose SB-127.
Send a message to your Colorado state legislator today!