When Coloradans Spoke Up, Protections Followed

In December, the Water Quality Control Commission voted to adopt Colorado’s first-ever dredge and fill permitting program. Colorado made history. After more than a year of numerous public meetings and a three-day hearing that brought together environmental groups, water providers, industry, agriculture, and community voices, the nine-member Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) voted to adopt Colorado’s first-ever dredge and fill permitting program. This new program, now adopted as Regulation 87, restores protections for wetlands and streams left vulnerable by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision, which narrowed Clean Water Act coverage and left hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands and thousands of miles of small streams without long-standing federal safeguards from dredge and fill activities. 

Colorado is now the first state in the nation to fully rebuild these protections. Audubon is proud to have shaped and supported the draft Regulation 87 presented to the WQCC by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and so grateful for our Protect Colorado Waters Coalition partners, and the hundreds of Coloradans who raised their voices for the protection of wetlands, streams, rivers, birds, and other wildlife.

To every Audubon supporter who signed our petition, submitted comments, spoke in the hearing, or followed three long days of proceedings—thank you. Your voices were a powerful force for birds and conservation, and you made a difference. 

Key Wins for Colorado’s Waters in Regulation 87

Working together, we helped secure key victories:

• Stronger protections for vulnerable wetlands and streams, including clear language that prevents broad loopholes around an exclusion for wetlands adjacent to and supported by ditches and irrigation infrastructure.
• Stronger compensatory mitigation requirements, including a major win ensuring that losses of ephemeral streams require at least 1:1 replacement.
• Improved project alternatives analysis, which helps to ensure project designs avoid and minimize harm as much as practicable.
• Clearer, more efficient permitting pathways, benefitting both conservation and project proponents. Additionally, our request to create a reduced permit fee for voluntary stream restoration projects was accepted, which reduced the fee from $4,320 to $500 for such projects.
• Protecting voluntary stream restoration capabilities in ephemeral streams that are being implemented solely for ecological improvement.   

A Foundation for the Future

Audubon worked hand in hand with our Protect Colorado Waters partners to secure this outcome. As we researched testimony, analyzed dense regulatory language, and supported the state agencies tasked with carrying out the law, one theme emerged again and again: we brought people with us. That is how conservation wins are made.

Colorado’s new state program, which goes into effect this year, ensures that these waters will not be lost silently or irreversibly. These rules are now more important than ever. The federal government recently proposed additional narrowing of protections that could leave a vast majority of Colorado’s wetlands and streams without federal protections. At this critical moment, Colorado’s program is now the state’s essential backstop.

While the Commission ultimately chose not to include a public interest review—a tool long utilized by the United States Army Corps of Engineers—the rule overall represents a major step forward for Colorado’s wildlife habitat, water, and climate resilience. This achievement would not have been possible without the leadership of Speaker Julie McCluskie, Representative Karen McCormick, and Senator Dylan Roberts, who championed the bi-partisan HB24-1379, nor without the tireless efforts of CDPHE staff and the thoughtful—often grueling—work of the Commission.

Thank You

To everyone at CDPHE and the Water Quality Control Commission: thank you for your professionalism, patience, and commitment to navigating a complex and high-stakes rulemaking.

To our Protect Colorado Waters partners for bringing our community together: our collective scientific, technical, and legal expertise, collaboration, convening, and perseverance made the difference.

Most of all, thank you to everyone who showed up. We came together as scientists, advocates, landowners, recreationists, local governments, and community members—and we proved what’s possible when Coloradans unite around protecting the places that sustain communities and birds. Audubon will stay engaged as implementation begins, ensuring this new program delivers ecological benefits for people, wildlife, and the waters that connect us all.