Arapahoe County Board of Health - Regular Meeting

Noon. I'd like to call the Arapahoe County Board of Health business meeting the order. Miss Smith, will you please call the roll?

Director Dinkinsheimer? Here. Director Sean Zubow?

Here.

Director Kristiney Kunzan? Here. Director Mark Levine?

Here.

Director Mark McNeilan? Here. Director Terrence Blocker? Here. Director Michelle Weinbach? Present.

I

would now like to ask the directors in the room to introduce the staff that are present today. Okay. Go ahead and check.

Great. I'd like to introduce Diana Rashash, our senior water quality specialist Steve Chevalier, one of our environmental health managers Conor Gerken, environmental health supervisor, Rito Gamache, environmental health specialist, Mara Thomas, environmental health specialist, Melissa Orozco, potential disease epidemiology manager. And I'd also like to make sure that we welcome, since Jennifer stepped out for a moment, both Jason Reynolds and Brian Wyrick from PWD joining us from one of our fellow departments. Oh. Okay. Well Thank you for being here. Brian is the director of

Here?

Yes. I have Heidi Williams, nutrition manager. Kathleen Robola, specialist practice coordinator, and Jacqueline Blitz, nutrition manager. You'll get to hear from them a little bit later.

I

don't think we have any questions. Yeah. Okay.

Just wanna make sure. Thank you. No other departments? Okay. The next item is to approve the March meeting minutes. I would like to ask for a motion. So moved. Motion made by myself and moved by Margaret Levine. Can I get a second? Second made by parents. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay.

If I could abstain,

that would not be done.

Okay. One abstaining. Hearing none opposed and one abstaining, the motion still passed. The next is our public comment period. Miss Smith, do we have anybody in the queue?

There's no incentive for public comment. Thank you.

Good. The next is the director's comment. At this time, my fellow colleagues are going to share insights from community leaders and partners to gauge the current state of the community. And so I'm a start with Christine and go from my right to

left. I'm so excited. This is a update that I've been excited to share with y'all. For many months, our multi sector plan on aging is out for public comment. I had Abby put a QR code up here so you can scan the QR code. It'll bring you to a feedback form. There's a link embedded in the feedback form

so you can pull up

the multi sector plan on aging. This is a blueprint for how we wanna shape how Colorado eat is, How we can make sure that everybody has access to healthcare, economic security, social supports, age friendly communities,

age friendly public

health. And so, this is the first draft. We are gonna launch officially July 1, but I wanna know what you think.

Thank you. Aaron? Yep. Okay. Mark?

A couple quick updates. One is folks may know in City County Denver. One initiative that we've been working quietly behind the scenes on is what we can do to help meet our motor ordinances. So Denver hasn't already been in the books since about 2016, and we just started to socialize that the last couple of weeks. So we've had a tough time.

Press releases and interviews about the next ten ten days or so, but order issues has a nuisance, and the public health concern is legitimate, you know, in communities, particularly environmental justice communities. And so I'm excited about what comes next. It will be a very significant community engagement piece in terms of feedback from the most impacted. So I'm excited about it. This baseball game probably is second inning. It's a lot of work still to come, but an important endeavor for our office and I think that we

And then I would just like to give an update. So I'm also on the board of Street Fraternity, which is located at Colfax in Yosemite, and I wanna give a shout out to our, harm reduction team. And so working with them, they're actually going down and working with the youth, and and giving out kits, and things. And so they're actually on the Denver side, but because of all of the issues we have with overdose in in that part of the city, Arapahoe County, the harm reduction team has graciously volunteered to work with the youth. And so the youth have been really excited about the naloxone training and really understanding what they can do to help people.

Because we see a lot of we've had about four to five overdoses in the past few weeks where the kids have actually saw the people in the parking lot passed out of OP, and so it's a really big issue. So a really good shout out a really big shout out to the harm reduction team. So so thank them for really taking on and working with you and being. The other thing is that everybody knows a lot of changes that are going on nationally. I think, you know, similar to the all staff meeting, I think Arapahoe County, as a public health department, y'all should be commended for all of the hard work y'all put in.

Y'all may not know, but us as the board of directors do acknowledge all of your hard work, and so that's why at the beginning of the meeting, we do like to know people's names because y'all provide valuable service in the county. And sometimes, it's not appreciated until the service is gone, but we do hear and we read the reports and see everything that you're doing. So for myself and all of my colleagues, I wanna say thank you all for all y'all do, especially in these troubling times. So thank you all.

Mister Shonksbanken? I have some good news. I think last time I talked a little bit about how we had about outreach to the School of Public Health to get a student to work with us, particularly in the coalition I'm sorry. The collaborative for health security in Arapahoe County. So we have just confirmed that there will be a student available, and we'll be able to work on some data analysis and presentation with that and looking forward to to that being of help. Anything that we can do these days to get help and without having to

pay a nickel It's been

already it's already worthwhile. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing is that I've been involved with some committees on behalf of HCPF, the Medicaid program, particularly regarding the health neighborhood, which is in the purview of a one of the committees that I engaged with, which is how providers, community based organizations, and the RAISE, the regional account and the account of both entities can work together for the benefit of neighborhoods. And, of course, one of the biggest and most important of the community based organizations is public health.

So I look forward to learning more and more about how we, as a public health agency, can be working with in our neighborhoods to define, number one, what is a health neighborhood rather than just the whole county, and how can we maximize these kinds of interactions for the benefit of everybody. So just an ongoing project.

There's so many things I've been saying,

but I'm

trying not to get negative.

It's positive.

It's like negative about the Medicaid world that some of us live closely in. But in the state of Colorado, it's reported that the program called, is for maternal health and for children who don't have documentation status. The state is holding steady. They're not tapping it. And there's over 17,000 people in the state who have qualified for that program.

So that's a little bit of a shining light in world of safety net in terms of covering many more documented citizens or or or residents, and and that the the number of in light of the number of uninsured people who are now coming to that clinic. So try to have be a positive and but but in reality, there's a lot of unfortunate decisions, and even will cut benefits for lots of. And

so when she comes back, we'll let her give an update as she so now we're going to go the general business item, the continuation of the OWTS hearing regarding 3140 West Girard Avenue, Inglewood, Colorado. And Monica and Steve are going to give us an update on this situation.

Yeah. And then I'll just start to just say this is a continuation of the hearing from last month. So the property owner has been noticed of the hearing, and they have sent a representative here. And so we may proceed.

If I may to Mhmm. Absolutely. To the the board, I'm happy to report that. Popular has made significant progress. In regards to the public health order, they they comply with every component of that order and have been very diligent about pumping the system, making sure that it's maintained in a decent screen manner.

It's been fenced. It's been signed. And also, the receipts for the pumping service have been provided to us in a time that we entered too. So I wanna express gratitude for for your diligence on that and for working with us to help get closer towards resolution. I'll let miss Paul provide an update on the tenants that that that the board so desires.

Absolutely. And after that, perhaps we can we can circle back and discuss long term plans for the property as it still has not as far as we know, that's not tied into sanitary sewer, and it sounds like the loan processing is still in the works, which is obviously needed for for financing for the the time. So move it to the board.

Hi, everyone. I'm Holly. Hey. I'm here for Michael Butler, who is the owner of House Purchase LLC. I did a property walk today. It is about 80% cleared out. They'll have the rest of the stuff cleared out between tomorrow and Friday. Sunday is their last day. There's three residents that are left at the home. They have secured another home. They have keys for it. They're just moving stuff as they're working since they don't wanna take their time off. And we'll meet again with them on Friday to upon the walk through to collect keys and then request for a different type

of comp schedule and so

they won't be there anymore. As far as the financing goes, we are in the process of going through the refinance. We're just working with the banks, so this way they can get their appraiser out there and do their stuff so we can get money back. And then pay to get tapped in, and then we'll submit those receipts as soon as or that receipt as soon as we have it.

And I would add, Michelle, I know your biggest concern was the eight residents, and so five of them, they are only 73 left. So they did hear you, but I'm doing clear. So Do you want me to

If I think Steve

comes Oh,

yeah. Go ahead, Steve.

If if we can just circle back. So, don't worry. As as miss Paul stated, they they are looking for a reduction in the on schedule since the the property will will not have any residents there to to the volume of the septic system. So what we're looking for is direction from the board and and long term compliance for the property and how we should achieve that. One thing that I wanna make sure is that we're we're being efficient in our approach.

So far, on average, we've been out to the property about twice a week to check on on the status of the system to make sure that it's not surfacing. In in the case of the residents no longer being there and anticipating that the property will not be for rent Correct. And until the sewer is tied in. I'd I'd like the board to consider some possible legal solutions for that to ensure that the property remains vacant until until it is the septic system is either repaired or it's tied into the municipal sewer. And that's why your motion is for you.

And if right if you want it, is to consider a cease and desist motion just to provide extra assurance for our department that there won't be anybody living there while the system is not in a functional state.

And outside so my question, Steve, because you're I I trust you know, you've been overseeing it the whole time, and I think the process and everything has went well under your leadership. Outside of the cease and desist order, what would you recommend from the board?

Out outside of the cease and desist order, I think at a minimum, a monthly water bill. That'll show us the volume of any of of water that's being used in in the property and be apparent that there's people living there. Okay. So does the board have any objections to a monthly water bill? Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. The pumping has been has been effective as far as not nothing coming to the surface? Yeah. Absolutely.

We we were provided the volume of water that was being used and was able to gauge the size of the tank and then set up a schedule based on that volume. And I think it was only once that we observed the the surface of the outlet close to the lid, and that was towards the beginning of our our process. And, you know, it's just kinda slowly moving out that that volume hasn't been a concern. Okay.

If I need a recommendation of Yeah. What's a fair pumping schedule. Wasn't it a couple times a week? No. That's why if there's no water flowing in.

Right. Yeah. So that's the reduction to zero times per week would would be the direction from the board, I think, that we're we're looking And and also receiving confirmation, first of all, that there won't be tenants living there in in terms of time.

And we do and we and you do have in the order under six that they are to submit monthly water bills. So that is part of the. Any other questions from the phone?

And then the permanent fix before how long does it take for the permanent fix to actually happen? So if they're if they're tying into Sheridan sanitary, is that is that what you're asking? Yes. I I don't have a gauge on that, and I don't know if you've been in discussions with them on on time lines.

Little bit, but not enough. Not until we get stuff figured out with the bank. We had a contractor company that can come and do it. We're just waiting for the funds. And so as soon as it's paid and we can get the process going, our goal is to tighten as fast as possible.

And then you just need confirmation from her

that it's complete before someone a tenant can move in? I Monica, I think I might need your advice on this. If if we do if the board does decide to do a cease and desist and they they provide us with documentation that they've tied into, or would we need to come back to the board to get direction or to release the public health order or the cease and desistance.

Yeah. I think that we can write that into the cease and desist order that that the property, once it is either tied to the sewer line or it has been remediated and replaced and repaired that that the cease and desist order will be vacated at that time, we don't need to come back to you at that at that point. But that was just sort of the order would go away on its own once that once staff makes that determination. If anything, Jennifer can send out a letter confirming that staff approve of whatever the situation is, and and I think that that would be fine. I'll also just point out that on the back, at the last meeting, you all found that the system constituted a nuisance, and then the statute allowed for the $50 a day fine.

And so that still stays in effect until this is fully resolved, and then we can actually go back and you can make a determination if you actually do want to charge those fees to the property owner or if you feel like they have really followed the public health orders or the cease and desist order that we'll issue, then you can make a termination at that point. But if that's for later, this is just to clarify that that still stays in effect. Okay.

But they're are they paying this? No. No. It's not.

One very my enormously minor point on seven. It says, including replying to all public health emails within twenty four hours. If I were a lawyer, I would wait until all of my emails were done and then respond. Could we change the word all to each and every?

Oh, sure. Mhmm.

Well, you can change that on your side if when you read.

Any other comments before we do that?

So do we need to write in that once it's complete, then they have the authority to just that everything goes away. So we can write that in. I think number nine

That'll be part of the order that you sent out tomorrow.

This this motion is basically just to direct the staff to read Right. The CS and DFS to. Question. Yeah. Thank you.

So I move for the board of health to approve the issuance of the following orders related to the on-site wastewater treatment system violations at 3140 West Girard Avenue, Inglewood, Colorado. One, the public health order issued on 03/19/2025 will stay in effect until the current tenants vacate the property. Two, House Purchase LLC and mister Michael Butler will notify Arapahoe County Public Health when the property has been formally vacated. Three, House Purchase LLC and mister Butler will ensure that the septic tank is pumped once the property is vacated. Four, a cease and desist order will be entered, which will commence once the property is vacated.

The cease and desist order will require Home Purchase LLC and mister Butler to ensure that there are no tenants, renters, or any occupants whatsoever at the property so that all use of the on-site wastewater treatment system ceases. Five, the cease and desist order will remain in effect until the OWTS system is repaired or replaced to the satisfaction of public health department or there is completed connection of the property to the Sheridan Sanitation District number two. Six, to ensure there is no continued use of the o w t s, House Purchase LLC and mister Butler are ordered to submit monthly water readings to staff of the public health department until the cease and desist order is lifted. Seven, House Purchase LLC and mister Butler are to continue to comply with all requests of Arapahoe County Public Health to remediate the nuisance, cease use of the septic system, and connect the property to the Sheridan Sanitation District number two, including by replying to each and every public health emails and phone communications within twenty four hours. And finally, number eight, the civil penalty assessment of $50 a day beginning 03/20/2025 will stay in effect and continue until such time that this board finds that the property owner has achieved compliance with the Colorado Public Health Act, the Colorado On-site Wastewater Treatment Act, and the Arapahoe County On-site Wastewater Treatment Act regulations.

We will determine the amount of the penalty once the remediation is completed. Can I have a second?

Second.

Second by VBE. All in favor, say aye. Any against, say nay. Hearing none, motion passes.

Thank you.

So we are now going to move into our study session for a second time. This the first study session is a briefing of state regulation 86 on gray water use in house bill 24 dash thirteen sixty two and provide recommendation to the board of county commissioners on whether to prohibit or allow specific categories of gray water use within the county. Diane and Steve will be the presenters.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Pardon me.

I am a wanderer. Never stick You can wander. Thank you very much. Never never sneak me behind the podium.

I'm gonna

get off of that.

I also have to use my hands. Okay. So so the purpose behind this presentation is to get everybody up to speed on the kind of bill that passed last year and the gray water regulations that have been on

the books for quite a

while and what that means to Arapahoe County and potential directions at the elementary. Next slide, please.

So can you go back for those? And just for clarification Yes. What exactly is the EL or EI at the end of

the Engineering intern. Okay. That's the fundamental engineering exam, but I've never bothered to take the PE. Exam. I always

I think people go to school and spend all that time getting them, so I like to acknowledge it and understand exactly what I mean.

So thank you, Kevin.

You're welcome.

No. Onwards, ma'am,

please. Alright.

So gray water,

that confused between what is gray water and what is black water. So gray water, specifically in Colorado, comes from the bathroom sinks, your bathtubs, your shower, the laundry room sink, as well as your washing machine. It is not from toilets, urinals, kitchen sinks, or the dishwasher. So various uses of that. Next slide, please.

So you've got the gray water. A potential use of it is to go from gray to black. So you take the the gray water sources, you gather them together, you treat them up, and then you use them internally within the home to be able to flush the toilets or urinals. And then from there, it's considered black water, and it goes into the discharge system, whether it's to a septic system or to a wastewater treatment plant. The other thing you could do is laundry the landscape where you're collecting it just from the washing sheet.

That's it. Just from the laundry washer. But the only thing done to it is a filter to get the lint out. And then from there, it goes to a mulched garden bed so that it can be used in the yard instead of using portable water for irrigation purposes. So why go ahead and reuse? Well, I moved here from Coastal North Carolina, average annual rainfall of 56 inches per year. You have a lot less water here. So the water issues, you know, exist in both locations, but they're about to plot. So here it's, you know, all about what can we do to conserve water? How can we stop using so much potable water for non potable uses?

And so gray water has been voted as being one of those things that you can use. So indoors, a lot of the household water is used in toilets, showers, and closed washers. So if you're able to use the water captured from the shower as part of a reuse system or from your clothes washer from either an internal reuse system or going to laundry landscape. Those are potential savings of water use that can then go to pluck in the toilet or going to do irrigating the garden if you're using it from the clothes washer. Aurora Water, when I was talking to them one time about this, one of them stated that their summertime water use nearly tripled.

Just basically because of all the extra irrigation that was being done during the growing season. So I've got a little scenario for you here. The 1,000 square feet of yard, if you're irrigating it with that one inch of water, that uses about 624 gallons of water. So keep that number in mind. We will come back to that number later. Next slide, please. So there are both pros and cons to reusing water. Two of the pros. One, less water use overall from a potable side because you're using some of that water for non potable purposes, and that less potable water being used for irrigation. I'm a water person.

I always cringe when potable water is being used for non potable uses because that potable water is very precious, and it takes a lot of work to be able to get it to be potable. Cons, it could result in higher strength wastewater, whether whether you're talking about the septic system or sewer system because you're diluting it with less water. Then you have the plumbing complexity issues. One of the things that will come out in the surveys that we send out to people was concerns about both backflow where water gets stuffed up into your within the home water distribution system or cost connections, which sounds exactly like what it is. Somebody connects a regular line to a phone call line.

You also have the operation and maintenance requirements. Who's gonna be doing that? How often is it done? What kind of oversight is there for it to make sure it is being done properly? High cost to benefit ratio comes into play when you're talking about $5,000 to install a internal reuse system on a new construction with the savings of about a $140 per year.

That makes the return on investment a very long period of time. Some of the feedback we got concerned about health and environmental issues that could come into play. The health concerns was what happens if you do have any of those cross connections or backlog. The environmental is comes into the the oversight of the program, and how do you make sure people are using proper chemicals within their homes, including their laundry soap. Because that material is then going out into the environment if you're doing it within your yard.

I hadn't thought about this one, but some of the surveys came back discussing water rights where depending on the source of your water, you may not be able to use it for laundry landscape. You can only use it for flush systems, whether it's the toilets or your house. Next slide, please. We did get some alternatives back from the outside entities when we asked them, you know, if you weren't doing reuse, what would you be doing? Castle Rock, they're very much leaning towards ultra low flow devices.

I am the proud parent of three children, and I remember when they were all teenagers. Getting them out of the shower, I was very happy. I was on the sewer system because

the

the eldest loved thirty minute showers twice a day. That's a lot of water. My granddaughter that lives here in Colorado, both my daughter and my son-in-law have been doing timers, hollering at her to get out of the shower and all of this thing because she likes taking longer showers than they want her to be taking. So if you're able to prompt somebody to turn their shower by one minute, if everybody was doing that, that could be a good savings of water. Now they're deciding to take twenty minute shower, and you can fully get it back down to ten minutes.

That's a really big savings of water. The smart irrigation practices come back down to the time of day that you water. You don't wanna be watering during the heat of the day, so are you watering in the in the mornings, as well as the landscaping practices that you have, that you're having less water demanding vegetation in your yard. Next slide, please. So there are two main categories, you know, single family categories and then the non single family categories.

Within those, they're pretty much similar. Single family, you have the laundry landscape where you can capture up to 250 gallons per day. That gets back to that 624 gallons for watering that 1,000 square feet. So it would take you several days if you were mixing it out to be able to get that 624 gallons of water. And that's if you were washing a lot of laundry because the average washing machine these days use utilizes about 20 gallons of water.

You'd have to be water washing 12 loads of laundry per day. Personally, I do not do that. Mhmm. I wash a whole lot less, and the average family of four also uses a whole lot less. If you are collecting it from other sources with your home, so your your laundry area, your laundry sink, the bathroom sink, and your shower.

You're able to use that for subsurface irrigation as well as the other uses, the indoor toilet flushing and outdoor firefighting, but it requires more treatment to do that. So treatment, storage tank, it's a much more involved, much more costly system than just the laundry to landscape. And the volume allowed for that is up to 400 gallons per day. Non single family homes have those same uses, but for those, you're able to go up to 2,000 gallons per day except on fire protection. And for that, in rural areas, there is no limit on the amount that they collect for rural fire protection.

Next slide, please. So it's called okay. Who's doing what in in our state already, and what kind of interest are they beginning? Because gray water is not a new thing. It used to be that it was an opt in program in some locations, some entities did opt in to having a gray water program and promoting either the laundry landscape type system or a a redo system within the home for flushing. So we asked them. How many systems have gone in? Denver has very actively been promoting this. They've been going to conferences. They've been bullying ever to meetings.

They've been offering instructions on how to do this. None. Bacon County, also done. Castle Rock has put in 29 flush systems in one subdivision. They worked with the developer while that subdivision was being constructed. Today, there are not 29 systems out there. Some homeowners were dissatisfied with the function of the system. They thought it was too noisy. It didn't work quite as well as they wanted it to, so they asked me how the system would be moved. So Catharine Rock is again thinking, okay.

This isn't working the way we had hoped to, so that's why they're looking more towards the ultra low flow. Grand Junction, they have a relatively new program. It's only been in existence for about a year or so. Despite having a 100 and some odd thousand dollar grant from CDPHE to try to promote and incentivize

less use.

Systems going in, they're still at zero. Fort Collins only uses or allows flushing systems due to water rights issues. The source of their water requires that it is treated, goes in homes, gets used, and goes back into the wastewater treatment system as opposed to being used on the land. And for those reuse systems, zero. They're also the ones that did that return on investment estimation of that $5,000 cost to install and taking thirty to sixty five years to pay off that whole system through water savings with your water bill.

So that really you know, they're thinking they're really not gonna be getting much interest in putting them in. Unless there's some way else that they're able to incentivize it or get that cost down. Alternatively, Golden is only doing the laundry landscape systems. They have had some interest in having such a system installed. However, they've had no applications as to my last contact with them about a month ago. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon. I'm Arthur Camille with the City of County of Denver. Yes.

And a board member.

And a board member. I'm talking to Drew.

I'm talking to Drew.

I'm talking to Drew.

Yeah. So we're actually I just had to double check those numbers this morning. So Deborah has 24 facilities that are permitted, 23 homeowners or private residents and one commercial. But your point is well taken that it's not a very well, there's not a lot of programs that have should be totally adopted.

Correct. The commercial one, I believe, is in that one building where they have it as a a raised bed garden within the building's atrium area. So imagine outside there having the system put in. So that is very much a different fish than what we would be talking about with going into residential type business. I

know

he had been promoting the laundry landscape, but the last time I talked to him, he had said that they did not have any.

The court had drew this morning 23. Twenty three? Yeah.

All in Central Park. Okay. But not not too dissimilar to what you mentioned about Castle Rock. You know, some concerns with homeowners about just the overall o and m and, you that concern. And that there's hundreds of thousands of residents in Denver. 23 is a small number.

It is. As a matter of fact, I asked him for some awesome information the other day, and he got back to me, I think, yesterday. I think he asked him Monday or Tuesday yesterday itself, and he just got back with me and hadn't updated that that one number, but he did let me know about the grant that they had been working with from CKAC trying to promote it. Thank you.

Of course.

Thank you. So once we found out what the various entities around we wanted to find out what the county our company entities were doing. So between the developers, municipalities, and water and sanitation districts, we sent out about 90 surveys. We got 17 back for a whopping roughly 20% response rate. Nine municipal, eight water sanitation district, and zero developers.

When I was talking about this to a couple of other people, basically, they were not surprised at all by the zero developers because they their take on it was they felt the developers were waiting to see what ended up getting passed. Next slide, please. So we asked them very basic questions. So of the the different options, what would they like to see implemented with the county? Seven of them said neither. They don't wanna see laundry to landscape. They don't wanna see flushing. Four said laundry to landscape. Two said flushing. Three said both.

So if you add these all up, it's, you know, they're they kinda balance out. And then one person left, the question left. So to follow that up, next slide, please, we asked, okay. If there is a program, what is your greatest concern with a program? I gave them a a bunch of options as well as an other where they could write in, and I asked them to pick their top three. So that way, they're not just limited to to one potential concern. They can give me several different ones. Cross connections and o and m right up there at the top. That's one of the things that's really concerning them about it, as well as oversight of those systems. Then there's that whole homeowner understanding.

You can understand what they have. Do they understand how to operate it? If they're a do it yourself on various things within their home, what might happen to that system? If it's not working right, the filter keeps clogging, they just pull that filter out and let things continue on their merry way. So who's gonna, you know, make sure that it stays working the way it's supposed to be?

We did have a few on water rights issues as well as environmental issue concerns with doing the landscape, a laundry landscape option, which can only be used seasonally because you can't apply outside year round. So it'd be mainly during the brewing season. And that had to do more with the soap issue, contamination issue. Yes. It's coming from your laundry, but anybody who has had a baby or a toddler knows that, yes, there can be people material going into that laundry from time to time.

Yeah. Understand.

I'm okay. I'm getting a

guest over there.

This table is is well aware of that.

Environmental concern.

And then one person did mention implementation cost of this because they are expensive try to do if you're doing the flushing. Much less possibly if you're doing the lamp laundry landscape, but getting back. What's going on with that? So next slide, please. So if you really weren't all that keen on laundry landscape or internal reuse for flushing, what else might be considered as a method to try to save water?

That's I did is to fill in the blank. Maybe next time we can go and do this, I I give them the things from this list along with an other. Because being a fill in the blank, that's exactly what they did. Ain't no one left it blank. So these top two could probably merge together a little bit more, but landscaping policies, zero escaping, requirements and incentives along with trip reduction were the main things.

So, again, out in that yard, how can we have it be less water intensive out there? Then trying to push for water conservation fixtures and rebates as well as the others, those were much responses to that question. Next slide, please. So like all surveys, do you have any other comments? You asked the question.

I got quite a few back. This is the opposition slide, and don't worry. There's gonna be another one in support slide afterwards. So one had a a very interesting response that it was gonna be against their their plans because they're looking more into the water reuse from the wastewater treatment plant side. So at Denver Metro Recovery or Sky Ranch or some of these other areas where they're taking the wastewater, they're treating it back to use levels that they can then type it back and use it for landscape.

So they want to expand that aspect of it. So it would kinda be contrary to what their plans are. Another one was risk too high for these income systems. Again, you know, that concern about the expense, that oversight, and could be opted out and very carefully opted in if that does occur. And I I mentioned to you that that cross connection and o and m is high on their minds as far as potential issues and why they're concerned about it. Next slide, please.

So these are two of

the the most supportive responses I got back. And even with those, there are yeah. Gonna have to see this. However, we do have this concern. So making sure that they are implemented properly, that it's not gonna be any contamination or pollution.

They'd love to see this, but, again, make sure there's no gross connections. So they like it, but next slide, please. So there are several regulations that have been on the books for quite a while regarding brain water. Regulation 86 has all kinds of things in there that if it really regulate excuse me, a gray water program is implemented that people would have to follow. As well as the Colorado Plumbing Code and the International Building Code, which are adopted by this county and the Greatwater, making sure it complies with any kind of water rights issues depending on that water source.

That's all. So last year, house bill twenty four thirteen sixty two, the measures to incense by free water use passed. That's where it became that you have to act out as opposed to that opting in. The board of county commissioners does have some options. They can just say, don't don't allow anything.

We're just gonna totally opt out, or they can prohibit one or more uses of that free water, or they can just let it go into effect, which it will do in 01/01/2026, in which case everything would be permissible. Next slide, please. There are several Colorado regulations. So CRS 25 dash eight, HEDRIP, allows, you know, local government. They have to do notice that they're gonna be opting out.

They can only do indoor gray water in new construction projects, so it's not gonna be a case of retrofitting, and that would be prohibitively expensive anyway. And then the county with the program will have exclusive enforcement authority for it. Next slide. So why are we here before you about all of this considering the by mentioning the the board of county commissioners? Well, the IRS 30 says that this should be done in consultation with the board of health as well as the water and wastewater service providers that they can enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Board of Health as well as the water and wastewater service providers regarding the grade use, its installation, operation, and management.

So before going to the options slide, Steve, would you say something?

Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. It's great. I wanted to recognize again director Brian Weimer from Public Works and Development as well as Jason Reynolds, the Planning Commission Manager from Public Works.

Also, they've been very active with us in helping to research this topic. We've been working on this since October, and number of Jason's staff reached out and said, hey, what do you guys think about this memorandum of understanding? And then, you we we needed to get a lot more information about what Greywater is, who who's using it in the state, who's permitting it in the state, and what it means for our accounting and public criticism I've been great to work with and so we can't wait to the board. We'll continue to work together as we move this forward to the board of county commissioner for their further direction. Before Diana gets into the different recommendations, I did want board to make note that if there is any recommendation from the board to not prohibit any on these landscape systems or anything that would need additional permitting for gray water, that there could be sizable financial impact to the county that comes from two different cost centers.

One of the cost centers would be for the initial lift for regulation development, standard operating procedures, training for staff, getting some kind of encompassing program just for graywater off the ground and then continuing on, depending on what the demand is, continuing to to provide that service for the for the community who wish to install these in in the new builds or or larger plans for system. The other cost center is with our software system. As part of regulation 86, we have to have some way to track these systems. Our software system currently for health inspections and septic systems is not currently set up to track gray water systems in a way that needs to be done following regulation 86. And this would come out at a significant expense.

We haven't we haven't asked for a quote from our our provider unit just because we wanted to get direction from from you all as well, from board of company. Before we start that, we'll turn in. And but from previous experience for other programs that I I looked at quotes for, it could be in the range just just to get it onto our system between 20 and $30,000. And that's that's not including all the different configurations that have to be added as well as staff time to to test. So just wanna make sure that, you know, that the board is aware that there is representation to not prohibit one or all of these types of systems that there is a financial impact to the county and potentially specifically for public health depending on how those that oversight is served by the the board of commissioners.

I just need some clarification. So we don't have to move forward. We could say we want to do nothing. But is there a penalty of the same? No. And I'll be getting into

that with the next slide. Any other question? Okay. So

options for action. So there are four listed here. One of which you know, one action is no action. Go ahead and let it automatically go into effect January 1, in which case all free water options become available to residents within the county modern landscape for existing as well as new construction or internal reuse systems for flushing or new construction. That one, exact clip of that, prohibit all uses of gray water.

Then we've got prohibit gray water systems that utilize the water outside of the home. It's the environmental concern and public health concern associated with that or come up with some other combination. So those are the basic ones that we came up with. In consultation with the public works department, the one that we're all leaning towards is this third one of prohibiting the water use outside the home. So if they were going to be doing reuse within the home, new construction with all of that bells and whistles where it had to be inspected and all, that's a little bit less scary than the laundry landscape aspect of it just because of that that human component and what's gonna happen with that and the concerns that were raised by the various entities when they responded to our survey.

When you say within the home, you mean within that person's property so they No. I'm talking within

the home. It's used within the home flushing toilets. So that would be so that'd for flushing toilets and murals. So the water from bathroom sink, laundry sink, showers, tubs, and the washing machine can go through a treatment process with in the home, which is not inexpensive, and be plumbed to connect to the plunge components of the toilet so that it would be used instead of bubble water. If you're not generating enough water that way, it also has to have potable water connection.

And so that's where that cross connection concern is in the backflow prevention. So it has issues too.

Yes. But is this system, like, underground? So if something if it's in a house, it goes something goes wrong, it isn't super expensive to fix to dig up the yard to get to the system.

Okay. Within the home. So it might be if you have a basement, it might be within the basement. That's fair. Yeah.

Home on slab, new construction, there'd be, like, a utility area for it where the system would be installed into. It could be done outside the envelope of the home attached to it. So it comes out, does it stay, and then goes back in to flush. But it really increases the complexity of the piping system within the home. So if you have water coming from various sources going to this one location for treatment, and then if you have three or four bathrooms in your house, so it has to go to three or four different bathrooms, again, you've got that that plumbing consideration, which is why retrofits are much less likely to occur as opposed to being installed into new construction.

It doesn't seem as though there's a lot of demand for even that. Yes. That is correct. The in home. And would it make sense for us to perhaps recommend prohibition entirely unless or until a certain threshold is reached of demand at which time we can then reconsider.

So one point of nuance that we need to discuss here, and and Brian and Jason might be able to add some additional information here, is that with that third bullet, the indoor plumbing of Greatwater is already in the Arapahoe County plumbing code. So this is something that Arapahoe County Building can already inspect and permit through their process, and it's been in

there since at least 2015. And the latest version is 2021. So it is in our code. We have adopted it. The way the statute was prior to last year was they had to opt in. So they had to come to the county and say, we're going to use it. Now it's the opt out. So that's what we're talking about. One consideration associated with this is it has to go into a storage tank. It has to be treated. Guess how you get it out of the storage tank? You gotta pump it.

Right.

So there's additional cost associated with that. It's also with this is allows for buyer systems in the home. So we have opted out of that requirement in single family within the capital accounting. However, that doesn't mean that you can't put one in. But think about the type of water that's going back into that fire system.

It's not through portable. And when you need it, is it going to work within that fire sprinkler system that you have because it is not entirely a 100% clean. So there's some issues there that we may wanna consider in terms of opting out of that. We've noticed well and the code does not address laundry to landscape. It doesn't talk about the size of type, how you do connections, The bedding of code by the International Code Council by the Colorado or International Plumbing goes through a highly vetted process.

That has not occurred with landscape into or longer into landscape. So we're almost coming up with our kind of own code if we go down there, which is why we're not recommending it. Plus, as we talked about, there's a seasonal component here in in Colorado. Right? Could freeze.

How does that work? One of our concerns that if you we inspect the new home. We don't inspect currently what happens with that, which is that operation maintenance component that we talked about. So if somebody sees a problem, they could disconnect. They can connect together, and that's where you get that contamination issue. So is there an ongoing inspection program that would need to be implemented to ensure compliance long term? We haven't gone down that path yet, but that's something probably we'll have to talk about if we go down that path.

And who's gonna pay for it?

And who's gonna pay for it and those sorts of things. So with that, the code allows it, and it's embedded. So you can do it, but there's that long term issue and maintenance operations of the system. And so that's something that we go down this path where we have to think about and decide how we can implement that and how we can track that.

Wouldn't it be better to let other counties figure this out before we put one of financial children out of one county? Just throw that out on the table.

That's actually something that we've found in in some of our discussions with some of the other counties is that in until there is more knowledge and expertise and the design and regulation of these. And and not to mention the demand that it it just wasn't fueling the

Is there a state like Oregon that's where they well, they have so much water, but another dry state that's way ahead of us on this path. There's Colorado lead leading this charge. It has been a subject of discussion across The US, all the way

back to Eastern North Carolina and all of it's right. There, they have been pushing it along, still not much in the way of demand. So it's not something that people are having go in their homes. The the freezing situation and the the water use situation is a lot different there as well, where, you know, you only have to put pipes, you know, 12 inches below grade. You got things in your yard that are greening around.

So a lot more opportunity to be able to utilize that water. And you have washing machines that are out in the garage. And they're just able to go through that back wall of their garage, out to their backyard, and okay. Matter of fact, that was one of the problems with health departments when gray water was not allowed. If people were having problems with their septic system, they would divert their washing machine out their backyard by just putting the hose out there.

So at least having it underground is a little bit better. But, yes, it it's it makes it more of a formidable thing there as opposed to what are you doing? You can't have it running across the ground. So those kinds of scenarios where there's that piece, that connection is a lot easier than a two story home where they now have the washing machine up on the 2nd Floor. And the the closest wall, it its exposure is out over the driveway.

So how would you do that? So that's not something that people are are as likely to do as a do it yourself effort. That might be something that would more likely be done as a new construction type thing or in a configuration of a home where they do have that easier access. So that's where you get into the ones that have been occurring in Denver. I doubt the ones that we've been talking about go right out over their their driveway. They would probably have to be closer to an actual lawn area garden area. Yes, sir. At one

point, there's a critical mass of water to needs. Obviously, we're putting money in the gross reservoir. We're putting money into bringing water up in the Arkansas River. When does that that that cross in terms of where you have to do something?

When it's not a forty year return on investment to be able to do it, or a developer is really interested in putting them into this new set of homes, they're able to add that cost to the property, and then the type of home is being promoted as being more environmentally friendly. And so even though somebody might be only living there for six or ten years before they're moving someplace else again, that cost is able to be realized when they go to sell the property because the next buyer is also interested in being able to be more environmentally conscious. So until that starts happening, if you're talking about a thirty five, forty, forty five year return on investment, you're gonna have much less demand on it. Because if there is more demand for it, the developers would be pushing it more than they are not.

I may to that point as well, we have an affordability issue in Colorado, and this is just one other thing that goes kind of against where we're trying to go with this. Some of some of the other examples have been kind of energy code and solar ready codes that state have been adopted that now have to go into the homes, which has been adding additional cost to the homes as well. So but the nice thing is this isn't a mandate. This is a may and a choice. Other codes that we had to adopt and incorporate are regulations.

They have to go into everything. So there's a cost associated with that, which is kind of going somewhat against the affordability issue that we're trying to deal with as well. The other thing that we have done in public works is last year end of last year, Jason's team in planning has developed or we created new landscape regulations. And so that was under the auspices of water efficiency, water conservation, and what those look like for new developments, which we're looking at having a a bigger bang probably than this would in terms of water usage because, you know, the largest water usage is outside. Right?

And so that is what we're looking at moving forward relative to the new developments that would have been approved.

Okay. I guess, Mark, I think we were Yes.

So A few few thoughts. Just high level, I think that reminder to the to the colleagues on the board just what's on the table potentially is this this bill action. I mean, I've heard a lot of arguments of of of of prohibition, but there's nothing in it that says that homeowners or developers need to need to send some into some questions I heard earlier with my colleagues, you know, could we get data later? No. Probably not because if there's a prohibition, then we won't see these programs.

So we still wanted to kind of level that. Are there any data to support anywhere in The US that that third point about environmental public health concerns, sustainable living landscape? I mean, it it feels very hypothetical, but I don't know that I've seen data that shows a widespread issue.

Some of it depends on where you are and brain fall factors and various other issues. But the the laundry soap that you're using, is it a phosphate soap or is it a lower phosphate soap? Same thing with the nitrogen aspect of it. So if it's moving rapidly through the ground and it's not going through a septic tank and then out into a drilling field where you're making sure it's all you could deeper down going where it's supposed to be going. That kind of an environmental issue.

Postal areas, you know, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, along the coast, they would have much more issues about that. They have issues with on-site with our treatment systems because of the the nitrogen and phosphorus. So, yes, that would be an additional problem and concern that they would have. So some of this locality and the type of system that would be going in.

And then my second, if I may. So I I think you touched on it in your presentation that one of the big unanswered questions that I have is around water rights. Yes. And so I understand for City and County of Denver, it's fairly straightforward to develop this MOU and water rights are all established. But when I think about Arapahoe Academy and scale in different entities that may be be involved, it seems like it almost be a case by case determination.

Like, did this home or this property participate? Because maybe that area doesn't have the senior mineral senior senior water rights that would be necessary to have a program like that. So am I misthinking that how complex that could hurry for a county like Arapahoe County where you may have many partner agencies in there?

32. K. We have 32 water districts. So we didn't hear from all 32, but we did hear from several of them, and they were all saying roughly the the same concern. And the one was really interested in promoting wastewater treatment plant discharge and reuse so that either treated water coming back or reuse that way.

So reclaiming water as well as lower flow and landscaping types of changes. And we are able to reduce, especially during the the growing months, those former season, season of the year, that additional water use, that could be a big savings. And Castle Rock, because of their feedback that they were getting from the 29 that they had put in and they had to remove some, they were going more towards the ultra low flow devices within the home to try to internally reduce the some of the water use.

If I ever respond to that. So hearing that there's, like, 32 potentially different partner agencies, I mean, that strikes me as 32 in my ear. It's a lot of legal time and staff time. So if I miss part of that or misunderstanding, like, the administrative burden, I might welcome some people to have that from from the board from the staff.

Of them do get their water from Denver Water. Others do have their own water that they have, like, Aurora Water has their own reservoirs and more wells that they get their water from. But each one would be a different entity that would have to be involved with this. And some of them individually, such as Aurora Water is recommending to city of Aurora to opt after.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. If we recommend prohibition, can we review? Like, every year can the board review, or how often are they every three months, could we say I would change their mind, then we wanna do this? I mean, there's no limitation on it.

To the best of my knowledge, you are allowed to change your mind.

So you it's gonna prohibit now and revisit it at another time given the administrative burden potential cost of not doing something and knowing that it is part of it is already in code with public works. I I do think we could revisit it in the future at especially as we learn more of other counties. Like, if there does become interest in the other systems, come on, that could be information for us. But, absolutely, it could be revisited anytime regulations can that we have control over. It would be a recommendation then to the county commissioners because the county commissioners have ultimate decision over this, but it is in consultation with the board.

They will want to know what the board of health has to say. But, yeah, we could reopen it at in a future date if we want it.

I think we need to have a fair understanding of who's gonna pay the cost before we place them on the residence of. That's

Ready for a motion.

It's my concern.

I don't think that You guys are We just need a general consensus on the direction and what like, where you feel these are our recommendations and where staff in consultation or in conjunction with public works are recommending. Do you agree? Like, they have a different thoughts because our next step, we have a study session with the board of county commissioners on June 10 in which Diana will provide a similar presentation plus the outcome of your this conversation, but it's

not a formal vote. I'm interested in more information before I would feel comfortable making a recommendation here today. Mean, Herbstie, for example, described some of the costs. I think that's important for us to So my ask of Sean and the board would be for staff to provide us some more information that we can take into consideration with the understanding we'd come in May to provide a recognition back to the accounting commissioners. But I would want some more information and data that's in support based on the various recognitions and and the course.

And to that point, we did reach out to several of the entities to find out what their program costs were costing them, which is how we found out about the two entities that had grants from CDPHE they were usually valuing those funds to promote the program and get things going. But for the others, you know, one of them said, well, their costs were none because nobody's done anything. So until they started having the demand, but they're having to write permits, review designs, and go out and do inspections, they don't have those costs yet. So they really couldn't give me a number. So it's gonna get more into the background kind of things that Steve was mentioned.

Okay. We have to change the health space. If we have to go through training, we need another FTE or partial FTE that would be looking into this program. What would public works be having to to do as far as their staff with their regulations, with making sure that they had all the forms and everything available to be doing this. So those are all guesstimating kind of come up with.

Okay? But as to whether we're getting two applications a year versus 20 or 200 or if we don't have a demand, we might have done all of the setup for no response. So it's both ways going on with that.

Agreed. It sounds that, again, we have work between staff and the public boards. We did six plus months at this exercise. So if there's some there's qualitative information that's available that the board can understand a little bit more about the

decision. Request.

Also, a really difficult moment in time to place any additional expense on the county in light of They might be other restrictions, financial restrictions coming to the county and public health and all these other entities. Just I that's what I'm that's really what my concern is. Making any kind of recommendation or thought process when it comes to this moment in time, that there's gonna be less money in the system. And

as you remember from last year's budget request, environmental health is the one one of a few one of the programs or divisions in which we are understaffed. And we were able to get three environmental health inspectors that we have recently hired, but we are still grossly understaffed in environmental health. And so this would just add more capacity or more to an under or understaffed department. But we can come back if the board choose we could come back in May. That still gives us enough time to prepare the information and material needed for the June 10 board of county messenger meetings.

So if you want us to come back as follow-up in May, we can do that.

It's hard for me to envision anything that would justify our recommending that anything be implemented at this point in time. And I strongly favor that we recommend prohibition of gray water systems, something that we can revisit if the environment changes. But at this point in time, I don't see any reason that we should do anything except recommend prohibition.

There any

current funding landscape beside, is there any reason why Arapahoe County opting in to this would create some groundswell around, like, better technology? Or, like, it sounds like we're kind of ahead of our skis. Like, we're, like, yes, we should use gray water, but we don't have great technology to do it. Am am I hearing that correctly?

Castle Rock said that that subdivision of 29, they were not happy with how it operated. So the developer of that do that Mhmm. That was being used for the flush system was getting ready to upgrade to the next model that they learned from. Which is when Sam said, don't. Just take it out.

And so they haven't gotten that information back on how the next version is performing. Okay. So, yes, it's very much a case of putting it into residential type systems. People are still companies are still developing that on a residence by residence basis. The other concern that got mentioned by public works was with all of that piping to go back to the the flushing systems.

It's not like it's purple pipe inside your home. So how it it it a do it yourself or or even if he hired a plumber to come in to fix something, making sure that there's identification on those lines Mhmm. Differentiating them from the portable water supply. So how closely do they actually have to be labeled to have that? So there's not a special line inside the house that I am aware of for water reuse systems. They would just look like the rest of your bag.

That seems like an an issue. They may have

to do some labeling, but it's far enough apart that if your break is right here or they're joining something right here, they might have done that.

Right. Okay. I it's like, if we could never mind. Yeah. I I agree with the provision. I mean, not at this time. We can't do anything at

this time.

I mean, you're not telling us it's getting in the way of public works. Okay. Are are we inhibiting you?

Are we what? Inhibiting you. No. Okay. No. I'm not we're not getting the way of public works. We've been quite a bit about this whole thing, and I never knew about chapter thirteen and fourteen of the international building code. She's Yeah. So for Interesting reading sometimes.

Certainly. I know. Depends if the veterans on the

inside. It's hard.

Prevent us from being the deputy agenda for mayor. Recommend against argument prohibit. So where do we stand

supporting, this team?

Well, I didn't favor prohibiting it at this time with the option to come back, but I think, Mark, I don't want

I wanna make sure that you're feeling

I guess, what what further data do you need to make a decision in May? I guess I'm not totally understanding what we don't have here.

Yeah. A couple of things jump out of me again. I think I'm very sensitive to the the costs. We've been good discussions of budgets and so forth over the last couple months. So the idea of adding a little more with less is is definitely challenging.

I think that's I won't speak for others, but, I mean, if I was going to recommend or support prohibition, it would be because of the impact there. At the same time too, we heard a little bit about the the importance of being water conservation and and so forth and all these little steps to to matter for things we follow water quality excuse me, water quantity issues. And so if you think that understanding what the look would be would be helpful. My my request to staff would be not dissertation, but it sounds like a lot of information has been gathered. So knowing more about what's involved in in the the program would be helpful now.

You know, why do you think it was good to hear that we could come back and visit a a decision at a at a later time to we would probably be asking the same questions then. And so that's why I'm walking that information now. So that's not the rationale for the request. Thank you. Aaron?

No decision to send it becomes a vote. Obviously, I'll I'll I'll doubt that my my request would

be a promotion. So far, we've heard the majority of my colleagues support prohibition, So I I will go with prohibition.

And is that prohibition of gray water systems entirely or prohibition of that third bullet in which supports the current regulation? But we don't need to

support the current regulation. It didn't exist without our support.

Correct. We don't even we don't

need to. So We've been adopting.

Go ahead, Steve.

So if if we bring that recommendation to the board of county commissioners, the board of county commissioners agree with a full prohibition that there's been any changes to your code that could have a ripple effect?

Oh, that's my question.

Yeah. We would we would do a opt out in our code, which is just another hearing, if you will, of excluding chapters 13 and working in what portions thereof, I guess. And then the international the international funding code that allows this, we would just pop those out. We've done that, like I said, for fire systems requiring them within homes because we have good fire protection, and it increases the cost of getting those homes to be off to the. It's no different than that type of situation you're playing. That's what I'm saying. And

a few people have mentioned, so just my just one of my general thoughts is, in general, I've heard a few people mention this goes to the board of county commissioners. We're the board of public health, meaning it's not our job to worry about the budget because I would say there's a lot of policies on the books that have harmed public health in the name of the budget. So our job is to do what's in the best interest of public health. That with acknowledging that the board of county commissioners have to make financial decisions, I'm completely fine with that. But our job, what we're tasked with, is protecting public health representing Arapahoe County irregardless, in my opinion, of the financial considerations because the county looks to us after voice for public health.

The board of county commission is the voice for whether or not it's fiscally responsible or stuff. So just I just wanna, you know, keep that in mind because over the years and even what's going on politically, we still have a charge to do what's in the best interest of public health. Sometimes that conflicts with either what's popular or, you know, what's cost cost effective.

And and so I just want to circle back to your question, Jennifer, Recommendation through regarding gray water systems that utilize the water outside of the home and that prohibition to align with PWW. That is, you know Okay. Something we'd be interested in that discussion again for efficiency on what exists within the building code and how things operate already in the county. Mhmm. So we can make sure we're clear on straight prohibition considering that, again, in partnership with PWD's input. I I I just wanna make sure we fully understand the position of the board of health in your recommendation.

So can I just clarify also? Are you act actually looking for a recommendation or that they are not opposed to any of these specific options? Like, if the board wants to go with recommend complete prohibition or the partial one, is the board is this board opposed to the board of county commissioners Yeah. Going one way or another way? Because then Brian can take that back and say, the board of health does not oppose really any of these options. And

Yeah.

Look at this. And that's a big Yeah. That. Yeah.

Thank you. I think that is a good refrain because, again, it is the county commissioner's decision in part of that study session either in June or as a a follow-up will cons will include the financial implications. Okay. So we we knew that we would need financial data at some at some level. It it is hard to exact and say this is how much it would cost, but if we lay all that groundwork for potentially nothing, it would the payoff of that.

So we would have to prepare at some level the financial data. But in June is the first study session with them. They may based on what they ask of staff could involve more steps. A decision needs to be made by the end of the year because this goes into effect Pretty darn. 01/01/2026.

So if we do nothing, it's opting in, and then we we are forced to do all of the work. But if you're not opposed to our any of our recommendations or opposed to some form of a provision, that's what we can take forward to the commissioners in June. And and we have scheduled for you all a follow-up in, oh, in June because we meet with the commissioners at the June, and I think it's the next week that we meet with you all so we can let you know how that conversation went and any action items out of that. So we do plan to come back in June for a follow-up unless you want us to next month with more data. Yeah.

So

if I may, I'm gonna kinda go along with the comment you made there, Monica. I mean, I think it would be prudent and responsible for the board of health to give recommendation to accounting commissioners today so so desired. We and Jerry for my my colleagues where we where we stand. And so I don't know if I'd wanna say that we don't support all of them because these two of them are counter to each other. So do you think that it would be a responsibility for us to make a recommendation to other cabinet commissioners at the third direction of this point?

I wanna recommend at this point, we're leaning toward prohibition.

Well, I think after Monica's point, I think I'm not opposed to any of them if the county commission figure out how to pay for it, but that's their responsibility. Or the combination of we're come we're I we're comfortable with two and three. Number two and three. It says recommend some other combination, two and three, and then it's public works.

Recommendation three is the only one that really applies to public health concerns, which is our purview. Right. So maybe that's the one that we should recommend.

Yeah. Great. Almost recommend general consensus that we're the recommendation is a prohibition so that we're in support with public works or we're not creating additional work for their existing regulations. Again, I don't it's a study session. Decisions won't be made in June, I don't think, or will it count?

Well, they could give us thumbs up. To move forward? What to move forward with whatever decision they would like. Okay. And then we would come back with a hearing to establish a formal resolution.

Okay. So it'd be followed up with a formal hearing. So Yeah. We can provide an update following that meeting and let you know where they landed because we'll we'll provide the same information to them, and they will have to go through the same deliveries and how they want to handle this as accounting.

And if I may, there's probably three options. There's the do nothing, which means we're opting in to do a 100% of what the regulations or what the statutes say. So that's everything. K? That includes wandering to landscape.

There's option b, which is prohibition prohibiting portions thereof, which could be the outside, could be the fire system, whatever that decision is, or it could be a total prohibition. The first one doesn't require a board action. It's done once the law comes into effect. The other two would require some specific resolution that talks about that and whether it's being prohibited. So that's what the board will be deciding in this direction, and then we don't have to go from there.

I thought the legislation required the ascent of the board of health in addition to the county. It's in consultation with.

In consultation with. So that's what

we're doing today. Okay. Yeah. Depending on board direction at the study session, you know, it they may ask us to come back to the board or anyway. They may ask us to do stakeholder.

I don't know what the board direction will be. So we may come back. That June meeting, like, I may you know, that that update may have a specific ask. It may just be an update that may be here in which we'd ask you to come. So it could could lean in a whole lot of different ways, but I think we will take to them all of the information that we have, the two departments to weigh in the the recommend recommending prohibition that we've consulted with the Board of Health.

This is where we planned it so that they are aware that you have weighed in. We've talked with you. They may ask us to come back, or we may ask you to voice opinion over here.

Do do we do we have the recommendation?

Yeah. Three.

Wait. I took number three. Yes.

They are friendly to that. So, you know, and I support this this recommendation for the reasons that were laid out. I don't think that recommendation, though, still addresses the question on the water rights. And I do think it could be extremely heavy administrative burden among the county and potentially this agency, particularly on the county, to enter into a variety of legal agreements. And so my friendly amendment would be for the county commissioners or whatever that process would be to recognize that that's a pretty significant lift.

That it the end of the day, again, think City County Denver is unique. They take Rempel County. All the memorandums that would need to be prepared is pretty pretty heavy lift.

So you would be against option one is essentially what you're saying?

Reversal again? That's what Right. Yes. I I'm not recommending every let the program just happen on January 1.

But if it happened on January 1, then we would need to do all of those agreements and address water rights, address contracts, and all of that. And so you what I think you're saying is that you are opposed to letting it Just just happen. Okay. He was supportive. So right. So I think the majority of you support either complete prohibition or at least prohibition for anything outside

of the home. Yeah. This

is, like, probably 10 layers above what I'm used to. I'm used to, like, third grade. I mean, the one thing y'all have to say is you start off saying, hey. Nobody is interested in this. And then from there, you say nobody who's not interested is even considering it, but then we've talked about this, know, just like developing legislation around something nobody wants.

And so it's like, what that I mean, so when people say, what exactly are y'all doing in public health, it speaks to that because we're having an hour long conversation about stuff that we argue the public doesn't want, is not interested in, but that we feel regulations need to be centered around. So just I I just ask for some time to keep in mind that if we explain this to the public, there is no way, I think, that they're gonna, you know, understand half of what, you know, what's going into it if people aren't interested, developers aren't interested.

The third one is the one that we saw as being most likely to occur, especially out in Eastern portions of the county. Again, back to that scenario of disconnect the drain from going to the septic system and instead have it go out into, you know, the property. So what would be the impact of that? It's a it's a lower cost to do depending on their configuration. It's it seems to be the most likely one with the potential to occur. So and, again, this one has to do more with public health and disease, more damage to the

environment. And to your point, mean, the only reason we're here talking about the legislation was passed. Right. We we did not ask for these folks here. I think they were like real friends about the brain. Yeah. No.

It's a

good point, Sean. And just one final comment, that's okay. Mark, we just wanted to be sure we're clear on the request for information. If you have some specific requests you'd like us to look into and gather more detail, or was this part of our ongoing conversation this year? Said you needed more information, more research. I'm not sure what's feasible to gather based on such limited detail. I just wasn't sure if you have some specifics if you'd like us to respond to that. Like

Thank you for the good question. So on that point, I would actually pull back the the request, and I think the board is gonna make a recommendation today. So so they put a little opinion on that, but I don't think we'll be making that

Sure.

That that would cost. So they don't know if new information on that's gonna change the recommendation. I guess I do have a question about for for Michelle and others. Does the staff have a recognition? Steve, you know, pretty much out what Concur with the boards. Right?

Yeah. Oh, Yeah. Fast

forward. We're the board. We are the smart ones. Based upon your your great work. Yeah.

Before we start. Since we're recommended. But

And and and thank you, Steve, for the the candidate. And I I think third grade, I'm gonna put that one in too, so I figured it doesn't get in. But doesn't the isn't the water right issue still isn't that still in the table then with with that recommendation?

But isn't that something that the board county commissioners would need to consider?

It's not an officer that it's ours. It's not ours. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I agree. That that would be But

that's the reason why it would be compliant

on the front and wouldn't chime in because, you know, it's in the regulation.

With regards to the water rights issues, what we'll need to do is talk to the various law and districts, see what they have to say about that, and consult our attorney's office relative to that and see what implications there are associated with it. So since it was brought up as an issue as part of the public outreach, we will do some additional research on that and so that we can answer that question for the full. Full time period to deal with that.

Thank you, sir.

And and that mainly came to play in the laundry in the landscape because it would not be returned to a wastewater treatment plant for discharge back into the waterway. It's that's gonna be going on the land, is why the difference between Fort Collins saying no to the one and Golden going with the other, because all had to do with water rights.

Thank you.

So we are in favor of number three, and I am going to if y'all don't mind, move us along. So we got a slight dilemma. We were supposed to be finished with the second study session. Is there any way we can move this second study session either to May or when we meet. Because I am interested in nutrition, and I don't wanna rush that presentation. And so Yeah.

Out of respect, I would wanna do that. Yes.

May be a our third study session, which is just to hear the March directors.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Sorry. Good. Here and for your partnership with this. Thank you for that conversation. And Jill and team, you for your flexibility. We'll do this in May. Okay. I'll work I'll rework the agenda. We may do all of my dues during your informal session, which I apologize. I know that was supposed to be It's alright. Flexible. So far, it's pretty much a three hour meeting. But we may end up doing two presentations during that time frame.

We'll we'll work through that.

So director's report. I'm gonna focus most of the time on my mission moment

Mhmm.

Which was our all staff meeting. Yeah. So this last week was National Public Health Week, and it was the thirtieth anniversary of National Public Health Week. And we had our all staff meeting on Tuesday. So thank you to the three of you who who were able to join us.

I know it's a a long day, and it's hard to to come out, but it is nice to have you all join. Jill was the head of the planning committee that put it together, so huge applause for Thank you, ma'am. Like, this the amount of work that goes into I mean, you know what it's like if you're planning a conference. It's pretty much planning a a conference. 200 of us, it's a huge undertaking.

But one of so go ahead. Sean didn't intro it, so I put together some put together some pictures. One of the highlights of the AllSnap is our golden deck awards. And I don't know that the deck the river deck is our mascot slash. Last year was our this is just the second time we've done

this. Yeah.

Last year was the first time introducing the Golden Deck Awards, and we wanted to make them open to, like, everybody so that, you know, there wasn't because in previous organizations, it always ended up being just the leadership that that we get awarded. This, we created awards that were both fun and serious and really looked at all our values. So I didn't the slideshows are not in it was just what pictures were available because not all the pictures were there. So Alicia, our harm reduction program supervisor, got the leadership award this year, which was really cool. But I wanted to just I do wanna take a minute to review the award.

So we have the above and beyond award, which it's not correlated to this presentation. I just wanted to show a fun picture. Uh-huh. Yeah.

That's

fine. Above and Beyond went to Katie Smith, and she's one of our office support coordinators in Altura and Valora South. She is unbelievable. Aurora Altura is the one you know, it's got two elevators. One of them is always out. We've had clients stuck in an elevator. Mhmm. She has walked clients up and down the stairs to help them get to their appointments. I mean, she does everything she's in, it's well served. We have the data nerd award, and that went to Holly Adams.

She's in health protection and response, really manages the health space software and does tremendous work with data. We have excellence in customer service award, and that went to Maddie Hossettler. She's a communicable disease epidemiologist. Funniest coworker award was Danny Henderson, who does the child care inspection program. Innovative idea award went to Grace Perez as RD in nutrition.

And then process improvement award went to the Aurora South WIC team, and we've actually also sent their work onto the county to be recognized as cost savings and efficiency and a process improvement. So they'll get re recognized later this year. The team building award went to Jacqueline, who's back there, WIC manager. Community engagement award went to rep Rebecca Rapport, who is part of the maternal child health program, wasn't able to be here today. She also does a child fatality prevention review, and she's done a ton this year with gun lock distribution and a whole lot of other things, car seats.

We have the top problem solver or the super sleuth award, and that went to Renee Lenti. She's sexual health nurse supervisor and has done a ton a lot in the syphilis field delivery treatment. And she was also she's a finalist for the Luminary Award. Do you wanna mention talk just briefly about that? Yeah. So the the public health chapter of CBHA puts on an award for all kinds of nurses, and she was one of the finalists, one of nine, who was you probably know about it. The for the luminary award. So she's one of two finalists. She goes back to see if she actually won in May.

Oh, that's a

big deal. It it used to be called the public health. The saving?

Nightingale award. Nightingale. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now that's the blueberry and orange. So it was a big deal. So I

didn't know they changed.

Yeah. They changed it up. And then I mentioned the quack the quacktastic leader is was Alicia. She called it. So it was a lot of fun.

It's just a really great opportunity. They last year, there was feedback that they staff wanted the opportunity to engage with one another and learn what other people do or what other programs do. So we had a tabling event, like a little mini health fair, so so to speak. So everybody set up their programs, and you went around with your V Go card and great feedback. And and I was around going around talking to staff and hearing them how much they loved getting to know everybody else and finding out what they did.

So we had our own health fair for our own people, but it was it was a great way to learn. It a really, really fun day. And if you see, there's Kiana and Kiwami. We have baby Kiwami, which was so much fun. She adds so much. And then I have to share. Can you see that jacket?

If you

can't tell, that is 300 rubber duckies on a jacket. I don't know if, like, worded to me is the right it will get passed on. But it was it's probably 20 pounds. It's the heaviest thing I've ever put on my, like, worn around, but it was fantastic. That was so much fun. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

Well, we'll able to rehear something. But it was it was a really great day,

so

thank you. Just a couple other things that I just

want real quick too. You know, awesome that that staff gets recognized that they get for. It's also a testament to you and your leadership team of just the great things you guys are doing.

So I

wanted to acknowledge that. And for my fellow board members, Sean's tribute, those opening comments was just absolutely beautiful. Very, very touching. So thank you, sir. Thank you. For your team.

And their hairs. Yeah. Y'all are doing a great job. I think the one thing we should add is, I would say, like you said, Jennifer, the unsung hero award, Abby and all the work she does behind the theme to make everything go. I think it's Brandon. Everything always works. And so when we when there is a problem, it's like, what do we do? I have be home and pastor taking care

of us. I

have to go without record.

Where am I supposed to be? Yeah.

I'm gonna get off the bed. Ashley.

Ashley. You are absolutely right. Everything everything is up. Abby? Yeah. So it's yeah. We would get lost. Yeah. But it is it's a lot of fun. We look forward to it every year. Okay. Just a couple other things. We are in the tobacco program or community health promotion. We are recruiting youth advisers. So this was a lot of work to be able we had to change county processes and practices to allow us to hire youth Oh.

And got it done. It was no small feat, but the the county's never hired young adults. So we had to set up the process to do it. So it is open right now. And if you know of any young adults 16 to 20, it's part time.

So after school, some weekends, it is paid for opportunity to provide perspective, get experience, working on health promotion initiatives and policies. So we're really excited to be adding three years to the team. But the positions are open now and are on our website. But if you want a direct link or connection, Heather can provide that and ask you to share that out widely. But we are we are looking for youth who may be overlooked in participating in activities like this or, you know, those who are not already like, we're we're looking for youth with lived experience.

K. Then I just wanted to provide a brief update. I'm just skipping to let just say this. Because it is continuing to grow. We continue to work on it.

We do not have a positive case in Arapahoe County, but this staff get suspect cases every day that they have to look into and determine whether it's a low, meaning, or high risk. We tested it, wait for the test results, and then take action. We did have exposures to the Denver case. So the team has been busy and working on contacting exposures, figuring out their risk, their immunization status. We have a clinic, a post exposure at Propylax Clinic last week.

Yes. On Wednesday. So right after the staff meeting or the all staff, they were planning for the next day. We used our mobile van or that seat van for the first time because, technically, all of these folks who had been exposed should be in quarantine. So we didn't want them inside the clinic.

So we used the van, and it could be outside. They could sanitize the van, leave it overnight, and it was a lot easier than trying to sanitize the entire clinic because we do not have negative pressure rooms. We're not set up for that, but it worked. The team really came together, and it's so many different teams that work together to make this happen. But to let you know so in the report, and then this is still it was as of 04:10.

It's still the the numbers are have not been updated. There are a total of seven hundred and twelve confirmed cases in The United States. The majority of those are in Texas. We have three in Colorado, and then they're they're being more connected to one of them in in Colorado. So we are still planning.

We meet weekly to to make sure we have all the policies and procedures in place. We've got our isolation and quarantine orders ready to go. So we are we're ready. We put a lot of processes in action, and the team is we continue to work on it. So I think if and when it happens, we are ready, but it could very quickly take over and use up all of our resources depending on what kind of situation we're we're faced with.

Just wanted to update that we are we're still actively working on that, and it is continuing to grow. Their cases are not following. I think that's it. And that gets us right. Oh, no. No. No. I'm sorry. One more thing. Thank you. I I know Michelle had called regarding the Retailer Food Establishment license legislation. The bill was finally introduced. Mhmm. And thank you if you were were able to they did. The senate hearing was senate finance hearing was yesterday, and it passed unanimously.

Yeah. So the bill is in good shape. It's still not done. It's not over the finish line yet, but it it's got a really great start. So I feel pretty confident in it. If there is a need or we feel like we need to do more advocacy, I'll send another reach. But I think I'm hopeful that we'll that we're good. So thank you for your support. And now I'm done.

Be fair. No bugging business before this board, we are adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you. Take care.