Each year, I work to ensure that the federal government effectively serves Colorado’s needs by funding important projects in our state. I do this by making funding requests to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The appropriations process begins with an invitation for Coloradans to share their funding needs with me. My staff and I then review the requests and submit only the most meritorious requests to the Senate Appropriations Committee. I judge these requests on their ability to create jobs, provide needed services to Coloradans, and make Colorado a better place to live, work, and raise a family. I believe it is important for the appropriations process to be transparent and that Members of Congress should be held accountable for the spending decisions they recommend and make. That is why I will post every request I make here on my website.
Whether or not a project request is funded is first determined by the appropriations committees in the House and Senate. Then, as part of the final process, these measures must be approved by both the full Senate and the full House before being sent to President Obama for his signature. Therefore, you should be aware that not every project I, or other Senators, have requested will receive federal funding. Even those that do receive funding may not be funded at the amount I have requested.
You can be assured that the appropriations requests that I make will be deserving projects. I will continue to post requests on my website as I make them to the Committee, so please check back regularly to make sure you have the most up-to-date information.
FY 2010 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Requests
Entity: Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority (FRA)
Project Name: Colorado Drug, Device, and Diagnostic Development Institute
Location: Aurora, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
Funds would be used to create a non-profit Colorado Drug, Device, and Diagnostic Development Institute. The institute will take fifteen new bioscience technologies from CU, CSU, and other Colorado institutions and manage them through the early stages of development. These technologies can then be commercialized into new therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics. The goal of this project is to transform Aurora into a thriving and competitive bioscience cluster. This project has strong local and state support.
FY 2010 Defense Authorization/Military Construction-Veterans’ Affairs Appropriations Requests
Entity: 10th Special Forces Group, Fort Carson
Project Name: 10th Special Forces Group Language Laboratory
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $6,300,000
One of the primary missions of the United States Army Special Forces is training and advising foreign indigenous forces. In order to carry out this mission, Special Forces soldiers must demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language. The current language laboratory for the 10th Special Forces Group is too small and is located in borrowed space nearly three miles from the Special Forces Compound. The Garrison needs the space back by October of 2009.
The 10th SFG has picked a site for a new language laboratory that will include classrooms, a library, a lecture hall, a distance learning laboratory, and administrative offices. The project is on the FYDP for 2014, but the Army Corps of Engineers will support it if it is funded earlier than that.
Entity: Buckley Air Force Base
Project Name: Land Acquisition
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $9,900,000
Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado is surrounded by a growing community. To ensure mission capabilities and safety, Buckley Air Force Base would like to acquire roughly 122 acres of land immediately adjacent to the base to permanently protect the clear zone and eliminate any potential hazards to the flying mission. The purchase of this land is critical to the safety of flying missions and to meeting anti-terrorism and force protection requirements.
As development continues in the surrounding community, pilots at Buckley face a more difficult task of successful take off and landing. Providing funds for land acquisition will better protect our pilots and better enable Buckley to meet its responsibilities.
Entity: Colorado Air National Guard, Buckley Air Force Base
Project Name: Weapons release complex upgrades
Location: Aurora, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $4,500,000
Funding would allow Buckley Air Force Base and the 140th Fighter Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard to expand its weapons release complex. A weapons release complex is a facility in which munitions and ordinances are maintained. The existing facility is undersized, and National Guard officials worry it is becoming a hazardous environment for them to meet mission requirements and cannot provide adequate training to maintenance personnel.
The Colorado Air National Guard has world class pilots and technicians. The federal government should provide these brave servicemen and women with the infrastructure on base for them to successfully meet their mission objectives prior to overseas deployment.
Entity: Peterson Air Force Base
Project Name: Paine Street Widening
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $3,000,000
Funding will be used to widen Paine Street from Peterson Blvd. to Stewart Ave. from two lanes to five lanes. This will alleviate congestion between a densely populated area of Peterson Air Force Base and the main gate. The project will also focus on storm water drainage, traffic control, landscaping, signage, and utilities.
Entity: Schriever Air Force Base
Project Name: Airman and Family Readiness Center/Chapel
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $8,900,000
There is currently no facility on Schriever Air Force Base or appropriate space outside the restricted area to hold large community functions. A new Airman and Family Readiness Center/Chapel would provide space for a chapel sanctuary, as well as space for family support, counseling, and education. Without expedited construction, Schriever Air Force Base will continue to provide minimum-and inadequate-support for military families.
Entity: United States Air Force Academy
Project Name: Emergency Operations Center
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $10,300,000
This facility will allow USAFA to comply with a Homeland Security Directive HSPD-5, which directs implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and establish an Emergency Operations Center. An EOC allows the collocation of critical first responder command and control (USAFA, Wing, Emergency Preparedness, Fire, Medical, Security Forces and others) with enhanced coordination to provide effective command control at the scene of an on-going incident.
At the United States Air Force Academy, many of the current Security Forces operations are located in a flood plain and do not meet minimum space requirements since the Squadron has grown by over 30%. This project improves safety and homeland defense/security for the USAF Academy, surrounding military bases, the City of Colorado Springs and El Paso County.
The total economic impact of the Air Force Academy for the surrounding community is nearly $650 million annually.
Entity: None
Project Name: Report Language- Hiring Licensed Professional Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists at the VA
Request: Report Language
Suggested language: “The Committee recognizes that, despite authorization in the 2006 NDAA, the VA has failed to implement a law that allows it to hire Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs) and Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs). Because of the severity and frequency of the mental health disorders suffered by returned servicemembers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, further delay will only worsen the problem. The Committee directs the VA to work with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to develop the relevant GS series and begin hiring LPCs and MFTs at appropriate levels.”
Entity: Fort Carson
Project Name: Convoy Skills Trainer
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: $1.95 million
The current IED Trainer at Fort Carson is set up in a former unit dining facility. All existing adequate facilities of this size are being fully utilized to support current operations as well as Army Modularity and Global Defense Posture Realignment (GDPR) initiatives. The current facility being used is inadequate in size to fully utilize the Convoy Skills Trainer (CST); it only provides the capability for engagements on one side of the simulators. Other buildings on Fort Carson have been canvassed and there is not a sufficient facility to accommodate the proper training requirements for the Convoy Skills Trainer. Additionally, the current facility is not air conditioned and the computers/displays routinely overheat and must be shut down for periods of time in order not to overload and burn out.
FY 2010 Defense Authorization/Defense Appropriations Requests
Entity: Colorado National Guard
Project Name: Colorado National Guard Reintegration Program
Location: Centennial, CO
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $1,000,000
Section 582 of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Secretary of Defense to establish a national ‘Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program’ to better support National Guard and Reserve members and family members who are affected by deployments. The Colorado National Guard began this program in FY 2009. Funding would be used to expand its existing reintegration programs to provide, as described in the 2008 NDAA, “informational events and activities for members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces, their families, and community members to facilitate access to services supporting their health and well-being through the 4 phases of the deployment cycle.” Given the Colorado National Guard’s recent deployment of over 400 soldiers-the largest since World War II-this program is more important than ever before.
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: Geosciences/Atmospheric Research
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $3,000,000
The Department of Defense encounters environmental conditions that disrupt counterterrorism, war-fighting, humanitarian, peacekeeping, and training operations. The DOD Center for Geosciences/Atmospheric Research at Colorado State University provides research on priority environmental problems and questions of concern to the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. Continued funding would allow ongoing research in areas such as flood forecasting in Northern Iraq and cave detection in Afghanistan. The funding would help improve understanding of environmental conditions in complex urban areas and improve forecasting of clouds and icing that impedes use of manned and unmanned aircraft. Continued funding would also allow ongoing research to improve cloud layer and base forecasts to support air-to-ground and close air support operations; improve soil moisture analysis and forecasting for vehicle mobility, mine detection, and overland transportation; improve icing and turbulence forecasts, particularly as they affect helicopters and UAV’s in mountainous areas; improve wind analysis for airlift missions to cut fuel costs and to better predict dust and sandstorms; and improve realism in training and simulations to better prepare troops and equipment for the harsh terrain in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Entity: Department of Defense/Peterson Air Force Base
Project Name: Department of Defense Starbase Program
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $600,000
Starbase is a 17-year-old program with sites in 33 states. To date, the program has provided 20-25 hours of science, technology, engineering, and math exploration at military bases for over 400,000 fifth grade students. National Guard, Navy, Marine, Air Force Reserve, and Air Force bases are home to the program, however Colorado has not participated. Establishing such a program in Colorado Springs would enable local 5th graders to take advantage of the area’s incredible personnel and technical resources. Students would benefit from the program’s proven record of successfully engaging young people in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Entity: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Project Name: Center for Respiratory Biodefense
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $3,000,000
Project “Respiratory Biodefense” funds will allow for the continued development of a Respiratory Biodefense initiative at National Jewish, which has been named the #1 Respiratory Hospital in America for the past 11 years by U.S. News and World Report. The initiative’s mission is to make advances on the understanding of the mechanisms of injury at the molecular level and to develop effective means of detection, prevention and therapy. The unique focus of this program is to view the lung as an immune organ. Infections with anthrax, influenza, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis commonly begin in the lungs. Research areas include the following: ionizing radiation, sulfur mustard, post exposure therapies to control anthrax infection, drug resistant tuberculosis, and SARS.
Project Name: Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI)
Location: Nationwide
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $35 million over President’s Request
The Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI) is a program that has proven effective in addressing the serious and growing problem of encroachment at our nation’s military installations. By bringing government and private partners together with the Department of Defense (DOD) and working with willing landowners to establish buffer zones to protect military installations, ranges, and airspace throughout the country, REPI has enhanced military readiness, protected open space and key natural habitats, and sustained the vital contribution military installations make to our local, state, and regional economies. Recent DOD and RAND Corporation assessments have affirmed the success of REPI. However, RAND also concluded that the REPI program is seriously underfunded, that opportunities for effective action to protect bases are being lost, and that the cost of effective action will only increase over time. Additional REPI funding is necessary to successfully address encroachment, preserve the readiness of our Armed Forces, ensure the long range sustainability of our installations, ranges, and airspace, and sustain the vital contributions military installations make to our local, state, and regional economies.
Entity: United States Air Force Academy
Project Name: Air Force Academy Space and Defense Studies Research and Curriculum Development
Location: USAFA, CO
Amount Requested: authorize and appropriate $300,000
Funding will be used to support space and defense studies at the Air Force Academy, providing for programs to enhance the academy’s curriculum in space studies, foster intellectual development on contemporary issues of space policy study, and promote cadet and faculty research, internships, and professional development. Specific programs include the annual National Space Forum, the academic journal “Space and Defense,” special topic workshops on space policy themes, and a summer space seminar program.
FY 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Requests
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: Economically Important Infectious Animal Diseases (PEIIAD) Research
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Amount Requested: $700,000
PEIIAD provides timely, multidisciplinary research focused entirely on animal diseases that threaten the US food supply and/or cause economic losses for animal agriculture on a local, national and international scale. Specifically, funds will be used to research animal diseases such as avian influenza, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Chronic Wasting Disease, Vesicular stomatitis, brucellosis, scrapie, Food and Mouth Disease, and West Nile Virus. The center has been conducting research since 1998.
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: National Beef Cattle Genetic Evaluation Consortium
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Amount Requested: $700,000
The United States’ beef cattle industry provides affordable, high quality red meat to American and international consumers and plays an important role in rural America’s economy. Genetic evaluation enhances the global competitiveness of American producers. Specifically, the funds will be used for the consortium to research, produce, evaluate, and distribute beef cattle genetic information.
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: Russian Wheat Aphid Resistance, Stress Tolerance, and Quality Enhancement of Wheat
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Amount Requested: $300,000
Funding would be used to research wheat-based cropping systems that are critical to the economic stability of the United States and Colorado by developing a wheat variety that is resistant to the Russian Wheat Aphid, which has caused direct losses of over $11 million annually to the Colorado and central Great Plains economies. CSU uses new technologies developed through this program to accelerate the identification of useful genes and to incorporate these genes into new varieties, which will enhance the yield and safety of our domestic wheat crop. The funds are used by CSU scientists, Colorado farmers, and farmers in other central Great Plains states.
Entity: USDA/ARS Central Great Plains Research Station
Project Name: Maintain current funding
Location: Akron, Colorado
Amount Requested: $717,000
The Agricultural Research Service’s Central Great Plains Research Station, located in Akron, Colorado, is an important research facility. The Great Plains Research Station is focused on developing sustainable soil and crop management practices for the Central Great Plains Region and identifying technologies that maximize the use of the region’s soil and water resources with minimal negative environmental impact.
FY 2010 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Requests
Entity: City of Colorado Springs Police Department
Project Name: Colorado Springs Police Department Interoperability
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Amount Requested: $500,000
While improvements in information sharing have occurred nationally, the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) has significant technology barriers to adapting to the new realities presented by terrorism and other crimes. The CSPD has disparate data systems that do not readily share information and some of its fundamental technology is written on a technology platform that computer companies stopped supporting many years ago. The result of this antiquated technology is the inability for police officers to access the information they need to ensure officer safety in a quick and efficient manner. Investigations are made more difficult by an inability to easily find connections among data that exists in separate systems that do not communicate. This project provides the Colorado Springs Police Department with the technology necessary to meet these challenges.
Entity: City of Denver
Project Name: COPLINK
Location: Denver, Colorado
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Denver Police Department has joined with numerous Colorado law enforcement agencies, including Aurora, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Larimer County, to support regional data-sharing among law enforcement agencies. The program, called COPLINK, provides information-sharing technology, instant situational awareness, analytical capabilities and robust collaboration across multiple levels of law enforcement agencies. This solution has been established as a premier information sharing effort for many law enforcement agencies in the country and also has had military police success.
Entity: City of Durango
Project Name: Durango Police Department Interoperability
Location: Durango, Colorado
Amount Requested: $500,000
This project consists of two related components to increase the interoperability for Durango Police Officers. The first component is the installation of laptops, 900MHz radios, in-car cameras, and access points for eight patrol cars. This system has already been installed in the majority of the patrol cars. The second component is a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software system that provides an interface between the in-car computers and Dispatch. This is a regional solution that allows for redundancies and provides interoperability for 10 local agencies.
Entity: Colorado Meth Project
Project Name: Colorado Meth Project
Location: Denver, Colorado
Amount Requested: $750,000
The Colorado Meth Project is a large-scale exercise in prevention, aimed at significantly reducing first-time meth use with a primary focus on teens and young adults. Through its prevention efforts, the project aims to stem the destruction to individuals and the high costs to communities that result from the use of meth. A secondary objective of the Colorado Meth Project is to raise awareness of the scale, depth, and critical nature of the meth problem in the state. The Colorado Meth Project will execute an integrated program consisting of market research, public service messaging, and community action to effect a substantial reduction in methamphetamine use among Colorado’s youth. In addition to mobilizing local communities through outreach and education, the core of the Meth Project’s public awareness campaign is research-validated, high-impact advertising that graphically communicates the risks of meth use.
Following the establishment of the Montana Meth Project in 2005, Montana fell from #5 in the nation for methamphetamine abuse to #39. The state saw a 45% decline in teen meth use and a 70% decline in adult meth use, as well as a 53% decrease in meth-related crimes.
Colorado currently ranks #8 in the country for Meth use and it is estimated the drug costs the state $1.4 billion annually, including more than $73,000 per dependent user. It is among the top six states for identity theft, largely due to Meth use, and 70% of Colorado counties report increased foster care placements due to Meth.
Entity: Denver District Attorney’s Office
Project Name: Cold Case DNA Project
Location: Denver, Colorado
Amount Requested: $700,000
In FY 2007, Denver began a pilot project focused on investigating and prosecuting violent crime cold cases, and providing victim services to the survivors and/or their families. The success of the pilot program is the result of an unprecedented interdisciplinary collaboration between the Denver Police Department (DPD), the forensic scientists in the DPD Crime Lab and the Denver District Attorney’s Office. By working together, these Denver law enforcement agencies have investigated and successfully prosecuted cold cases using DNA matches obtained through the national law enforcement DNA database, CODIS (the combined DNA Index System).
Funding would be used for personnel, equipment and supplies that will enable the Cold Case DNA Project to continue to expand and improve. Ultimately, the goal is to create a national model for cold case investigations for use by law enforcement and prosecution agencies in the United States and abroad.
Entity: Jefferson County, Colorado
Project Name: Methamphetamine Response Collaborative
Location: Jefferson County, Colorado
Amount Requested: $500,000
Jefferson County law enforcement agencies and the Department of Human Services Child Protection Intake are responding at an increasing rate to investigations involving methamphetamines. Jefferson County is currently developing a two-pronged approach that includes the enhancement of strategies and infrastructure for interdiction of methamphetamine production and distribution and the development of protocol for teamed responses between law enforcement and social services personnel. However, physical needs, as they relate to structural cleanup within the community, remain unaddressed.
Funding will be used to continue a collaborative response plan that both identifies and responds to residential structures containing methamphetamine labs. Partners will work to continue a system to communicate with landlords, lenders, and community agencies, providing resources for and the facilitation of cleanup and safe return to community markets. These responses will focus on early identification of units to eradicate labs and toxins. The goal is to strengthen the communication and cleanup efforts of local agencies by providing identification tools and services to enhance cleanup and market return.
Entity: University of Colorado at Boulder
Project Name: Colorado Schools Safety Program
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Colorado Schools Safety Program (CSSP) is dedicated to stemming school violence by bringing leading-edge knowledge to all Colorado schools about the causes and consequences of school violence. CSSP vigorously engages its partners statewide in this effort, including the CU-Boulder Schools of Law and Education, the Colorado Attorney General’s office, and the Colorado Departments of Education and Public Health and Environment. With nationally-renowned expertise in both evidence-based and applied research, the CSSP provides planning, training, and assistance to schools on a statewide basis and disseminate the latest and best established research findings about preventing and managing potential and actual threats.
Entity: Weld County Sheriff’s Office
Project Name: Northern Colorado Regional Crime Lab
Location: Weld County, Colorado
Amount Requested: $700,000
With a population of nearly one million, Northern Colorado is the largest population base without a full service crime lab.
Currently, there is a tremendous back log of forensic evidence yet to be analyzed at the Colorado Bureau of Investigations (CBI) Crime Lab in Denver. Building a full service lab in Northern Colorado will benefit the entire state by helping to alleviate the backlog of evidence at CBI. It will give law enforcement officials the ability to process and analyze DNA evidence left at property crime scenes, and will allow the agencies involved to pool their resources in other forensic disciplines to better serve all jurisdictions throughout the area.
The lab would allow for DNA analysis, drug analysis, fingerprint analysis, analysis of digital evidence, and firearms trace evidence analysis.
FY 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Requests
Entity: Transportation Technology Center (TTCI), National Domestic Preparedness Consortium
Project Name: Transportation Technology Center (TTCI), National Domestic Preparedness Consortium
Location: Pueblo, CO
Amount Requested: $5,000,000
The TTCI is a federally-owned facility, managed and utilized by the Federal Railroad Administration for safety research and training on behalf of the Department of Transportation. It is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC) and is authorized to receive up to $23 million for FY 2010. The NDPC is the principal vehicle through which the Department of Homeland Security identifies, develops, tests and delivers training to state and emergency responders. As a member of the NDPC, TTCI, along with a similar facility in Hawaii, is the primary facility for providing first responders with hazardous materials training and full scale exercises in a railroad environment. Specifically, funding will be used to develop and deliver operations, technician, specialist and incident command training course for state, local and tribal first responders.
TTCI currently trains 2,400 students per year from around the country and the world. Included among its students are all of the surface transportation inspectors from TSA. It is designated as the Colorado State Training Center for Domestic Preparedness. TTCI is estimated to have a $6 million impact on the Pueblo economy as a result of hotel use and expenditures in local businesses.
Entity: None
Project Name: Report Language- Rural Airports and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Location: None
Suggested Language: “The Committee recognizes the importance of rural airports and general aviation to the economies of communities throughout the country. As the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) enacts rulemakings and security directives to ensure these airports are secure, the Committee recognizes that these directives will place new financial burdens on pilots and facilities and urges TSA to not only work with local stakeholders to ensure compliance with new regulations, but to also provide the necessary financial assistance to ensure that airports are able to comply with new regulations.”
FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Requests
Entity: Adams State College
Project Name: Center for Nursing Excellence Fundamentals/Simulation Nursing Lab
Location: Alamosa, CO
Amount Requested: $170,000
Funds for this project will go to equip the Fundamentals/Simulation Nursing Lab with human patient simulators, bedside computers, Internet access, digitalized videos, computer assisted instructional software, and other interactive software. The labs are designed to replicate realistic practice settings, including the basic hospital unit, critical care, pediatrics, neonatal nursery, maternity, home care, health assessment and diagnostic laboratory. Trinidad State Junior College Registered Nursing program students, LPNs, RNs, MSNs, PAs, and physicians at the San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center will also have access to this facility.
Entity: The Center for Empowered Living and Learning (The CELL)
Project Name: Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $350,000
The Center for Empowered Living and Learning (The CELL) is a non-profit institution dedicated to addressing terrorism. The CELL is located within the Denver Civic Center Cultural Complex. Its mission is to advance and disseminate information about terrorism and the ideologies that attempt to justify and drive its proliferation. It strives to deepen public understanding by encouraging visitors to think about the moral, philosophical, legal and existential questions raised by terrorist organizations, and the best known policies employed to combat such current and future threats to American citizens and people around the world. The CELL intends to encourage community involvement and activism, providing patrons with information to help them with preparedness and response issues.
Funds would be used for to update The CELL’s educational programming. Ultimately, The CELL is working toward becoming a regional and national center for these types of important educational and outreach programs.
Entity: City of Brighton
Project Name: Brighton Youth Workforce Development
Location: Brighton, CO
Amount Requested: $300,000
These funds will create a workforce and training program for at-risk youth between the ages of 14-21. The program will mentor students and provide them with summer employment with the goal of reducing high school dropout rates and provide youth with career guidance and opportunities.
Entity: City of Denver
Project Name: Foster Care Screening
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $400,000
This project will respond to the unmet need for mental health screening, evaluation and treatment for children in foster care in Denver County. This funding will help create a Child Health Passport and mental health information database for all of Denver’s foster care children seen through the Medical Home. The program will also provide increased preventive mental health care services for foster children.
Entity: City of Denver
Project Name: Veterans Green Jobs
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $400,000
The new program would train returning veterans in the field of green jobs, including: building retrofitting, heating and air conditioning installation, carpentry, insulation and etc. The project would be administered by the City of Denver’s Veterans Service Office, in partnership with local community colleges and state and nonprofit agencies.
Entity: Colorado Springs School District 11
Project Name: 21st Century Learning Community
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Amount Requested: $200,000
Funds will be used for a training program through which fifty teachers will learn about ways to make sure 5th, 8th and 12th grade students (students in transition) are ready for their next level of education or life upon completing their current grade level. The program will focus on connecting teachers so that they can use each other as resources. The teachers who participate in the program will also be able to bring back the experience they gain and share it with other teachers in their schools.
Entity: Colorado State University – Pueblo
Project Name: STEM Programs for Southern Colorado
Location: Pueblo, CO
Amount Requested: $750,000
Funding will be used to encourage students in southern CO, especially rural and minority students, to learn about and pursue studies and careers in the science, technology, education and mathematic (STEM) fields. This project is designed to address the challenge of education reform, academic preparation in math and science and will work to increase the number of minority graduates in the STEM disciplines.
Entity: Durango Adult Education Center
Project Name: Southwest Colorado Dropout to College Success Initiative
Location: Durango, CO
Amount Requested: $219,300
Funds will help the Southwest Colorado Dropout to College Success Initiative continue to provide tutoring and mentoring to people who have attained their GED in the Four Corners region. This support enables them to eventually enter and succeed in college.
Entity: Falcon School District 49, Partnering with Cires Education and Outreach Group, University of Colorado- Boulder and The Space Foundation, Colorado Springs
Project Name: Falcon School District 49 K-12 Science Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Initiative
Location: Falcon, CO
Amount Requested: $125,000
The Falcon School District 49 K-12 STEM Initiative is a district-wide Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education curriculum designed to introduce STEM principles across disciplines to students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Funding will go toward staff and teacher professional development, as well as equipment and supplies. This funding will help build the STEM Initiative program in the district and provide a STEM K-12 vertical alignment model that can be used in other Colorado school districts (particularly those outside of the Denver-Metro area). Falcon School District is ranked #2 in the state in reducing the achievement gap.
Entity: Fort Lewis College
Project Name: Tribal Nations Building
Location: Durango, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
Fort Lewis College is only one of two state colleges in the nation to provide tuition free education to Native American students. The Tribal Nation Building (TNB) program will provide experiential learning to students at the request of tribal governments and organizations in the Four Corners Region and nationally. Courses will be taught on tribal sovereignty, economic development, health care, natural resource development, and governance.
Entity: Jefferson County
Project Name: Child Abuse Prevention Infrastructure Re-Engineering
Location: Golden, CO
Amount Requested: $250,000
Funds will be used to enhance and continue the pre-service training program academy focused on best practices for new caseworkers hired in Jefferson County. This will allow the county to expand the tracking of case outcomes to improve response and assessment of reports of child abuse and neglect. The goal is to expand the pre-service training academy model to the Human Services Department to prevent entry of children and families into the Child Welfare system and improve service delivery throughout Jefferson County.
Entity: Jobs for America’s Graduates-Colorado (JAG- Colorado)
Project Name: An Initiative to Develop Colorado’s Emerging Workforce
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $125,000
JAG-Colorado is an independent, non-profit, state affiliate of Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG). JAG-Colorado addresses the 30% high school dropout rate by providing at-risk youth with classroom and work-based learning experiences that result in a quality job leading to a career and/or postsecondary educational placement after graduation. Services are currently being delivered to 185 high school students and graduates through a comprehensive school-based program at four (4) high schools in Colorado: West High School in Denver, Jefferson High School in Edgewater, Justice High School in Boulder, and Fort Lupton High School in Fort Lupton. Funding will go towards continuing this program.
Entity: Mental Health America of Colorado
Project Name: Metropolitan Denver Crisis Triage Project
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
Funds for this project will go towards building a crisis center facility that would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Other than local hospital emergency departments, there is no crisis care service operating in any of the seven Metro Denver counties. The core services of the Metro Crisis (Triage) initiative will include: 1) crisis counseling; 2) professional mental health and substance abuse assessments; 3) urgent psychiatric care; 4) overnight stabilization; and 5) follow-up support.
Entity: Mercy Health Foundation On Behalf Of Mercy Regional Medical Center
Project Name: Primary Care ‘Safety Net’ Clinic for La Plata County
Location: Durango, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
These funds would be used for the planning, design, construction and equipment for a new primary health clinic in La Plata County, Colorado; including equipment for information technology systems (HIT). This area has a shortage of primary care provides who serve underinsured, Medicare and Medicaid patients. This clinic would provide the hub for basic health care and preventive services with the capability to extend to the far reaches of our expansive county by including telemedicine for the remote areas of the rural community. A broad-based community coalition called the Health Services Steering Committee (HSSC), in cooperation with Mercy Regional Medical Center is guiding local efforts to ensure access to health care for the area’s most vulnerable populations remains stable and secure.
Entity: University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
Project Name: Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome
Location: Aurora, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
Funding will be used to purchase equipment and supplies for Down syndrome research at the Human Genomic Variation Facility within the Linda Crnic Institute for Down syndrome. This project began in 2007 and when completed, it will be the first comprehensive research, teaching and clinical center for children, adolescents and adults with Down syndrome. The research will study which human genes on chromosome 21 are optimal drug targets for the treatment of Down syndrome.
Entity: University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
Project Name: Physician Pipeline for Rural Colorado
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
The Physician Pipeline for Rural Colorado to expose a cohort of 48 to 60 Rural Track medical students and all 160 regular medical students each year to a smaller community setting, encouraging them to establish their practices and provide primary care to the underserved regions of rural and remote Colorado. Through their training in rural communities, students will receive a better understanding of the context of their patients, not only providing them an education based on applied medical science, but also providing their patients higher quality healthcare from physicians who understand the rural culture. The goal of the project is to support the development of 12-15 new rural physicians a year. The project would also partially support 30-50 jobs for program coordinators and preceptors responsible for the curriculum. Funding for this project is in the interest of taxpayers because there is an acknowledged severe shortage of physicians in Colorado and across the country, affecting the Eastern Plains and Western Slope of Colorado in particular.
FY 2010 Interior Appropriations Requests
Entity: City Of Monte Vista
Project Name: Wastewater Facility Consolidation
Location: San Luis Valley
Amount Requested: $800,000
This project will combine the dual wastewater facilities in town, install a new lift station and 15,000+ feet of pipe. The project would consolidate all wastewater treatment into an existing facility known as the Henderson Wastewater Treatment Plant, eliminating an underused and undersized facility that is currently dedicated to serving residents along the town’s incorporated limits. The move is estimated to save $100,000 per year in operation and maintenance costs, as well as allow the sale of the secondary treatment facility property.
Entity: City Of Thornton
Project Name: Thornton Drinking Water Facility
Location: Greater Metro
Amount Requested: $800,000
This construction project will reduce nitrates in the City of Thornton’s South Platte River raw water supply through its three-year phasing (2007-2010). Thornton is the only major community in the Denver Area that extracts its water supply from the South Platte after it has passed through the City of Denver and other communities upstream. The degrading water quality of the South Platte has been of significant concern for several years.
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: Colorado Forest Restoration Institute
Location: Statewide
Amount Requested: $650,000
The mission of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute is to help restore the health of Colorado forests and reduce severe wildfires by providing the best available science in forest ecology, restoration, and management. This institute helps federal, state, and private land owners develop and implement the strategies of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the National Fire Plan, and the Forest Services Strategic Plan.
Entity: The Conservation Fund/State of Colorado
Project Name: Snow Mountain Ranch
Location: Northwest
Amount Requested: $2,500,000
Situated 80 miles west of Denver and located between Winter Park Ski Resort and Rocky Mountain National Park, Snow Mountain Ranch/YMCA of the Rockies is one of Colorado’s most popular and well-known destinations. As the top-ranked FY 2010 Forest Legacy Project in Colorado, this would allow the State of Colorado to complete Phase II (1,147 acres) of this project by securing a perpetual conservation easement that will eliminate all subdivision and development on the forested back country and Pole Creek watershed on the property.
Entity: The Trust for Public Land
Project Name: Uncompahgre NF – Ophir Valley
Location: Highway 50 West
Amount Requested: $1,500,000
Currently, the Forest Service has the opportunity to acquire additional acres out of a total 1,200 acres of patented mining claims in the Ophir Valley, representing approximately 90 percent of the valleys privately owned in-holdings. Funding provided in previous fiscal years has allowed the Forest Service to begin this acquisition effort, and additional FY 2010 funding will allow the agency to acquire more of these mining claims. When completed, the project will resolve many pending land use and access conflicts that stem from the development of private in holdings within public lands, while promoting effective land management practices by the U.S. Forest Service. In particular, the proposed acquisition will protect critical habitat, maintain high-quality recreational opportunities on public lands, help protect water quality, and help maintain the quality of life of the regions residents.
Entity: U.S. Department of Interior
Project Name: Programmatic Funding-the Consolidated Natural Resource Act of 2008
Location: Nationwide
Amount Requested: $7,500,000
The U.S. Department of Interior was authorized by the Consolidated Natural Resource Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-229), to “provide grants and financial assistance for the development of facilities, technologies, and processes to demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness, and safety of produced water technologies that: (1) optimize energy resource production by reducing the quantity of produced water generated; or (2) increase the extent to which produced water may be recovered and made suitable for use for irrigation, municipal, or industrial uses, or other purposes without adversely affecting water quality or the environment.”
Produced water comes from lifting oil and gas from water-bearing formations. As these natural resources are brought to the surface, water is brought along with them. In 2005, 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 196 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were produced in the United States (API). These activities resulted in nearly 25 billion barrels of produced water. This equates to 3.2 million acre feet of water annually. This amount of water would support over 10 million people annually based on 0.3 acre feet per home/per year.
In the West, water has always been scarce, and it will become even more scarce in the future given all the uncertainties and pressures on our water resources today, brought on by climate change, drought, population growth, and environmental concerns. Funding the produced water grant program is an important initial step in determining if there are water treatment technologies that can transform produced water into a usable resource. It would be especially important for these grants to be targeted at demonstration projects in Colorado and each of the Upper Colorado River Basin states.
FY 2010 Transportation Requests
Entity: Colorado Association of Transit Agencies
Project Name: Colorado Transit Coalition Statewide Bus and Bus Facilities
Location: Statewide
Amount Requested: $15,000,000
The Colorado Association of Transit Agencies represents 27 transit agencies in Colorado. Collectively they are asking for funding to purchase new buses, bus equipment, and construct bus-related facilities. New buses will decrease pollution, provide for safer public transportation, and give additional Coloradans an alternative form of transport. These funds would be spent across the state.
Entity: Jefferson County Government
Project Name: Veterans Housing Project
Location: Golden, CO
Amount Requested: $565,968
These funds will be used by Jefferson County to provide housing and supportive services to homeless veterans over the age of 50. The County Housing Authority will purchase a 15-unit apartment complex located in Golden Colorado and provide property management services for the project.
Entity: Regional Transportation District (RTD)
Project Name: East Corridor Construction
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $25,000,000
The funds will be used to construct a 22.7-mile commuter rail corridor extending from Denver Union Station to the Denver International Airport. The East Corridor is projected to carry an average of 37,900 daily passengers by 2030. It is a component of RTD’s12-year comprehensive transit service and facility expansion called FasTracks, which was approved by the voters in November 2004. Final Design on the East Corridor is scheduled to begin in 2009, and construction is scheduled to begin 2011 with opening day on the East Corridor scheduled for 2015.
Entity: Regional Transportation District (RTD)
Project Name: Gold Line Transit
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: $15,000,000
The funds will be used to construct a 10.8-mile commuter rail corridor extending from Denver Union Station through Denver, Adams County, Arvada, and Wheat Ridge. The Gold Line is projected to carry an average of 16,800 daily riders by 2030. It is a critical component of RTDs 12-year comprehensive transit service and facility expansion called FasTracks, which was approved by the voters in November 2004. Preliminary engineering is expected to start in 2009, with construction starting in 2011 and operations starting in 2015.
Entity: Regional Transportation District (RTD)
Project Name: West Corridor
Location: Denver, CO
Amount Requested: support the President’s request of $100,000,000
The West Corridor is a 12.1 mile light rail line with 11 stations, extending from Denver Union Station on the eastern end, providing service west through Denver, Lakewood, Jefferson County and Golden, with a major intermodal facility at the Denver Federal Center. It will serve major jobs centers including the Jefferson County Courthouse and the Denver Federal Center. The FTA signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement for the West Corridor on January 16, 2009 for $308,600,000. $100,000 of that amount is scheduled to be dedicated in FY 2010. Construction is ongoing, and the West Corridor is expected to open in 2013.
FY 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Requests
Entity: Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque District
Entity: Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque District
Project Name: Tamarisk Removal
Location: Arkansas River Basin, CO
Amount Requested: $100,000
Tamarisk is an invasive plant species that can usually out-compete native plants for water. A single, large tamarisk can transpire up to 300 gallons of water per day. In many areas where watercourses are small or intermittent and tamarisk has taken hold, it can severely limit the available water, or even dry up a water source.
Tamarisk can increase the risk of wildfire and can deplete already-limited Western water supplies.
The project will investigate ecosystem restoration measures in the Arkansas River basin in Colorado, including removal of salt cedar and other invasive species. The Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District is the local sponsor.
Entity: Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District
Project Name: Chatfield, Cherry Creek and Bear Creek Reservoirs (Chatfield Reallocation Project)
Location: Chatfield, Cherry Creek and Bear Creek Reservoirs, CO
Amount Requested: $310,000
The Chatfield Reservoir was built in 1975 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the confluence of the South Platte River and Plum Creek. Designed to control flooding, the reservoir currently has the ability to store 350,000 acre-feet of water.
Additional storage space is needed to accommodate increased demand for water along the Front Range, where nearly 3 million more people will move by 2030. This influx of people will create 90,700 acre-feet in unmet water needs.
The Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation Project would create storage space for an additional 20,600 acre-feet of water in Chatfield Reservoir. Funding would allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete the Feasibility Report (FR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Chatfield Reallocation project, so that stored water within Chatfield becomes available for water supply and other needs in a timely manner.
The project has is supported by the State of Colorado the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, and the Greenway Foundation.
Entity: Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District
Project Name: Tamarisk Eradication
Location: Colorado River Basin, CO
Amount Requested: $500,000
Tamarisk is an invasive plant species that can usually out-compete native plants for water. A single, large tamarisk can transpire up to 300 gallons of water per day. In many areas where watercourses are small or intermittent and tamarisk has taken hold, it can severely limit the available water, or even dry up a water source.
Tamarisk can increase the risk of wildfire and can deplete already-limited Western water supplies.
The proposed project is located along the Colorado River and adjacent areas in Mesa County, starting at the Colorado/Utah state line and extending 52 miles upstream to the west entrance to Dubuque Canyon and consists of various management measures to restore aquatic and hydrologic functions and conditions and related riparian and seasonal wetland habitats. This stretch of river is critical habitat for four Colorado River endangered fish species. Project features include specific actions to restore fish spawning areas, flood plain hydrology, riparian habitat, and access to critical habitat for endangered fish. These actions will include exotic vegetation removal and management, riverbank improvements, and native re-vegetation to restore bottomland flood plain habitat.
Entity: City of Boulder
Project Name: South Boulder Creek Floodplain Project
Location: Boulder, CO
Amount Requested: $82,000
The South Boulder Creek Project is a floodplain mitigation project being conducted in partnership with the Corps of Engineers. Funds will be used to complete the reconnaissance phase of the project and move into feasibility studies. Recent technical analysis has determined that several hundred homes in Boulder, which had been thought to be outside of the South Boulder Creek floodplain, are now within the floodplain and subject to flood damage.
Entity: Colorado Division of Wildlife
Project Name: Aquatic Nuisance Species Containment and Prevention Program
Location: Statewide
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
The Colorado River is the “mother of all rivers.” If the outbreak of aquatic nuisance species (such as the Zebra and Quagga Mussel) in the Colorado’s headwaters continues to grow, these species could flow downstream and into a number of primary watershed areas throughout in the American West.
Funding would help to protect hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Colorado water distribution infrastructure (dams, dikes, reservoirs, power plants, pumping plants, pipelines, tunnels, and substations). These aquatic nuisance species also have the potential to wreak serious havoc on one of Colorado’s largest water distribution systems, the Colorado-Big Thompson Project (CBT). CBT provides 260,000 acre-feet of water annually to the Front Range for municipal, agricultural and industrial use.
Zebra and quagga mussels are invasive aquatic species first detected in Colorado (7 waters) in 2008. Adult mussels attach to hard surfaces and can create huge colonies. These colonies constrict water flow in supply pipes, interfere with the operation of mechanical navigation devices, and reduce native mussel, fish and plankton populations.
Mussel colonies clog intake pipes, trash screens, canals, aqueducts, and dams; disrupting water supplies to municipal, industrial and agricultural users. Zebra and quagga mussels also degrade water quality and can alter the taste and smell of drinking water.
This funding would allow the Colorado Division of Wildlife to inspect, decontaminate and quarantine motorized water craft in order to mitigate the impacts of aquatic nuisance species (Zebra and Quagga Mussels) in state identified contaminated and high risk water bodies, including Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Reservoir, Grand Lake, Turquoise Lake, Twin Lake, and Dillon Reservoir.
Entity: Colorado State University
Project Name: Sustainable Biofuels Development Center
Location: Statewide
Amount Requested: $800,000
The mission of the Sustainable Biofuels Development Center is to enhance the capability of America’s biofuels industry to produce transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks on a large scale, with significant energy yields. The goal is to produce these fuels at competitive cost, through sustainable production techniques.
Funding will enable CSU to expand the Center and acquire equipment that will facilitate the chemical and biological analysis of plants, microorganisms, and biofuels. The SBDC builds on a history of entrepreneurship-based research at CSU and will have a direct impact on the local, state and national economy. Nationally, the SBDC will help to insulate the US economy from fuel shortages by increasing our ability to produce and utilize a variety of domestically-produced biofuels. At the state level, the SBDC will serve as a resource for the state’s farmers and fuel processors to enhance their competitiveness. Locally, the SBDC will create jobs as a result of the commercialization of new production processes that will serve a global market for sustainable biofuels and biological energy production systems. Ultimately, the energy companies created at the SBDC and the processes those companies develop will help brand Colorado as a focal point of clean biofuel entrepreneurship, resulting in economic and environmental benefits. In addition, this program supports close to 30 jobs, from full-time staff to university faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
Project Name: Fountain Creek
Location: Fountain Creek Basin, CO
Amount Requested: $100,000
Fountain Creek is a 927-square mile watershed located along the central Front Range of Colorado.
Funding will allow the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a reconnaissance study to review the alternatives listed in the 2009 Fountain Creek Watershed Study and determine if there is federal interest to conduct a feasibility study for flood damage reduction, ecosystem restoration, sediment control, and other purposes in the Fountain Creek basin.
Entity: Funding Distributed To Colorado School of Mines through the North American Die Casting Association
Project Name: HyperCAST R&D Funding for Vehicle Energy Efficiency
Location: Golden, CO and Wheeling, IL
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Congress authorized the HyperCAST Program in Section 651 of Public Law 110-140, the Energy Independence and Security Act. HyperCAST research performed at the Colorado School of Mines will develop new and processes for high-strength, lightweight cast components for vehicles that will result in significant fuel efficiency, allow greater use of all alternative fuels, and a reduction in carbon emissions. Components cast with this technology will potentially be 60% lighter without compromising vehicle performance, cost, safety or recyclability.
Entity: Mancos Water Conservancy District
Project Name: Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Project
Location: Four Corners Region, CO
Amount Requested: $2,000,000
The Jackson Gulch Rehabilitation Project was authorized in Public Law 111-11, passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in March.
The project would rehabilitate The Mancos Project, a sixty-four-year-old, off-river federal project designed to store and deliver water for domestic, recreational, and agricultural use. Rehabilitation has become necessary due to advanced structural deterioration of the concrete and earthen canal that carries water diverted to and from the Jackson Gulch Reservoir. Aging and progressive deterioration of the 4.9 mile canal system has resulted in structural distress, seepage, and loss of an access road due to land slides. Additional problems exist with the sixty-four-year old operations facilities and maintenance buildings.
Entity: Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District
Project Name: Arkansas Valley Conduit
Location: Pueblo, CO
Amount Requested: $9,000,000
The Arkansas Valley Conduit is designed to provide clean drinking water to approximately 40 cities, towns and water providers in the lower Arkansas River Valley.
The project was authorized in 1962 as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, but it has received only limited federal funding.
The Arkansas Valley Conduit will begin at Pueblo Reservoir and travel east for about 140 miles through the lower Arkansas River Valley. These communities are in dire need of a source of water that will help them comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act in a manner that they can afford. At least thirteen of these water providers are currently under enforcement orders by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Enforcement, with several others on the verge of falling out of compliance. Every community that will receive water from the Conduit is currently rated below the 85 percent level of average household income for Colorado.