The bill directs the Colorado water conservation board (board), in consultation with the state engineer, to contract with a Colorado institution of higher education (institution) to conduct a study to:

• Evaluate ways to maximize the beneficial use of water within Colorado and implement the storage recommendations of the Colorado water plan by storing water underground when water is available;
• Evaluate ways to minimize the amount of water that flows out of Colorado to downstream states, without risking noncompliance with applicable interstate compacts, United States supreme court rulings, other federal law, decreed absolute and conditional water rights, the prior appropriation system, and Colorado's anti-speculation doctrine;
• Identify:
• Specific aquifers that are hydrologically and legally available to be used for underground storage and subsequent beneficial use;
• Sources of revenue that could be used to pay for the underground storage projects; and
• Planned potential or existing underground storage projects that would meet the objectives identified in the study;
• Examine the role that various water entities might play in financing and implementing underground storage projects; and
• Recommend legislative changes needed to implement managed underground storage projects in the identified aquifers.

The bill directs the board or the institution to submit a report summarizing the results of the study to the water resources review committee by August 1, 2022, which shall either have legislation drafted to implement the study's recommendations or submit the study along with its own recommendations to the committees of the general assembly with jurisdiction over water resources by January 1, 2023.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The act authorizes the commissioner of agriculture (commissioner) to:

• Enter into an agreement with any person or local government to provide pest control services. The department of agriculture (department) may provide pest control services directly or through a local government and may require remuneration for providing pest control services. The remuneration is deposited in the emergency invasive-pest response fund (fund) created by the act, and the commissioner is authorized to expend money in the fund to implement the act and emergency measures to control or eradicate invasive pests.
• Work cooperatively with the United States secretary of agriculture to implement a joint phytosanitary program if the program would economically or environmentally assist with mitigating or eradicating the spread of a regulated nonquarantine pest;
• Quarantine anything that harbors a pest if the pest has an economically unacceptable impact and if the measures to control the pest may achieve an acceptable level of official control;
• If the commissioner determines that a public nuisance creates an unacceptable risk of spreading a pest, coordinate with industry, support local governments, and make grants to take emergency action to quarantine, control, or eradicate an invasive pest;
• Request that, at the end of each fiscal year, money in the plant health, pest control, and environmental protection cash fund be transferred to the fund; and
• Seek and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources for the new fund, and requires the department to annually report to the general assembly regarding the amount and source of any gifts, grants, or donations received.

A board of county commissioners may declare a pest to be a public nuisance and require its control or eradication.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

For a mutual ditch corporation, the act clarifies that, subject to the articles of incorporation and bylaws of the corporation:

• When stockholder demand exceeds supply, the corporation may limit or otherwise rotate delivery of water ratably among the stockholders; and
• When a stockholder is not using some of or all of the available water under the stockholder's shares, the remaining stockholders taking delivery of water through the ditch may use any unused portion of the water that would otherwise have been available to the first stockholder.

The act specifies that it is not intended to prevent a stockholder from changing the use of the water rights represented by the stockholder's shares, create any impediments to changes in use, affect storage water rights, or change the standards for water court approval to change a water right.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act:

• Makes current laws concerning governance and transparency for cooperative electric associations (associations) applicable to nonprofit generation and transmission cooperative electric associations that provide wholesale electric service directly to Colorado cooperative electric associations that are its members;
• Eliminates an exemption to those requirements for associations with fewer than 25,000 members;
• Allows an association to authorize, in its bylaws, its members and directors to participate in meetings electronically;
• Allows an association to authorize, in its bylaws, members to vote in an election through a secure and verifiable electronic voting system;
• Clarifies that members voting or participating in a meeting electronically are considered present in person for the purpose of establishing quorum;
• Defines joint memberships and clarifies how joint memberships can vote;
• Amends the deadlines and requirements for notice of an election;
• Requires an association to adopt written policies concerning the compensation of board members and disclosures of conflicts of interest for board members;
• Requires board members to fulfill their duty of loyalty to the cooperative association at all times; except that, if a director serves on the board of both a generation and transmission association and a distribution association, the director owes fiduciary duties to both associations and shall not be required to give priority to the duties the director owes to one association over the duties the director owes to the other association; and
• Requires associations to post on their websites information about their rates and net metering requirements and to make financial audits available to members on request.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the Colorado soil health program in the department of agriculture (department), which includes programs to encourage widespread adoption of soil health practices. An entity's participation in the soil health program is voluntary. The department, commissioner of agriculture (commissioner), and state agricultural commission will administer the soil health program.

The department shall, if financial resources are available, establish the following:

• A grant program;
• A system for monitoring the agricultural, environmental, or economic benefits of soil health practices;
• A state soil health inventory and platform;
• A soil health testing program; and
• Other programs the department deems appropriate or necessary.

Before establishing a program, the department must provide public notice and afford the public an opportunity to submit written comments.

The department may also:

• Seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from public and private sources;
• Provide grants, loans, and other resources to eligible entities to perform soil health activities; and
• Cooperate and collaborate with other people.

The act also creates a soil health advisory committee (advisory committee). The commissioner is required to appoint members who:

• To the greatest extent possible, represent the different geographic areas, political diversity, and demographic diversity of the state; and
• Include agricultural producers of diverse production systems, a representative of an Indian tribe, conservation district board members, and water users.

The state conservation board appoints 2 members to the advisory committee.

The advisory committee will make recommendations to the department and assist in the development of the soil health program. The advisory committee is also authorized to solicit input, review proposals and agreements, and evaluate the soil health program. The advisory committee approves grants.

The department shall maintain the confidentiality of information related to private lands that identify landowners, land managers, agricultural producers, or lands.

No later than January 31 of each year, the department shall prepare and make available to the public a report of its activities on its official website. The department shall annually report each gift, grant, or donation in its budget request for the state fiscal year to the joint budget committee and at the hearing required by the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act".

For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $4,464 is appropriated to the department for use by the agricultural services division.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Section 3 of the act defines "disproportionately impacted community" (DIC) as:

• A community that is in a census block group where the proportion of households that are low income, that identify as minority, or that are housing cost-burdened is greater than 40%; or
• Any other community as identified or approved by a state agency, if the community: Has a history of environmental racism perpetuated through redlining, anti-Indigenous, anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic, or anti-Black laws; or is one where multiple factors may act cumulatively to affect health and the environment and contribute to persistent disparities.

Section 3 also requires the air quality control commission (AQCC) to promote outreach to and engage with DICs by creating new ways to gather input from communities across the state, using multiple languages and multiple formats, and transparently sharing information about adverse effects resulting from its proposed actions.

Section 4 creates the environmental justice action task force (task force) in the department of public health and environment (department), the goal of which is to propose recommendations to the general assembly regarding practical means to address environmental justice inequities, particularly within DICs. The department will report on the task force's activities during the department's "SMART Act" presentations. The task force will:

• Hold meetings to solicit public comment concerning the development of a state agency-wide environmental justice strategy and a plan to implement that strategy, including ways to address data gaps and data sharing between state agencies and the engagement of disproportionately impacted communities;
• Evaluate and propose recommended revisions to the definitions of DIC, "proposed state action", and "agency" and the state agencies and their proposed actions that are subject to section 3; and
• File a final report by November 14, 2022, regarding its recommendations.

Section 7 requires the AQCC to include greenhouse gas (GHG) in the list of air pollutants required to be reported in an air pollutant emission notice (APEN) and allows the AQCC to require that APENs for GHG report the previous calendar year's emissions of GHG in the form of carbon dioxide equivalent. Section 8 requires the AQCC to adopt rules, including permit processing fees, that apply to permits for sources of pollutants that cause or contribute to significant health or environmental impacts in DICs. Section 9 allows the division of administration in the department to reopen an air permit to add monitoring requirements for sources that affect DICs.

Section 12 creates in the department the position of an environmental justice ombudsperson and directs the ombudsperson to promote environmental justice for the people of Colorado, particularly as an advocate for DICs and as a liaison between DICs and the department. Section 12 also creates in the department the environmental justice advisory board and directs the board to advise the ombudsperson and to develop guidelines for a grant program to fund environmental mitigation projects that avoid, minimize, measure, or mitigate adverse environmental impacts in DICs.

Section 10 requires the AQCC to establish an annual APEN fee for GHG and authorizes the use of the fees to pay for the engagement of DICs required by section 3 and for the ombudsperson position created in section 12. Current law credits air quality fines to the general fund; section 13 creates the community impact cash fund and, over the course of 5 years, credits all of the fines to the fund, which is used to pay for environmental mitigation projects and the environmental justice advisory board.

Section 14:

• Allows the AQCC to adopt rules that add permit requirements for sources that affect DICs;
• Directs the AQCC to adopt rules that pursue near-term reductions in GHG emissions, including reducing GHG emissions from electric utilities by at least 48% by 2025 and 80% by 2030, relative to 2005 levls;
• Directs the division to prepare an annual report that indicates whether GHG emission reduction requirements are being met and, if not, to develop and propose additional requirements to the AQCC;
• Requires each wholesale generation and transmission electric cooperative to file with the public utilities commission (PUC) and the division an electric resource plan that will achieve at least an 80% reduction of GHG emissions by 2030, relative to 2005 levels;
• Requires certain electric utilities that serve at least 50,000 Colorado retail customers to either file a clean energy plan with the division or comply with AQCC rules that would require GHG emission reductions of at least 48% by 2025 and 80% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels;
• Requires the AQCC to adopt rules to reduce GHG emissions from oil and gas exploration, production, processing, transmission, and storage operations by at least 36% by 2025 and 60% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels;
• Requires the AQCC to adopt rules to reduce GHG emissions from the industrial and manufacturing sector in the state by at least 20% by 2030, relative to 2015 levels; and
• Authorizes the AQCC to adopt a rule or program that provides for the use of a trading program, including a comprehensive and centralized accounting system to track emissions from the sources that participate in the program.

Section 16 requires that the economic impact analysis for GHG rules must include an analysis of the social cost of greenhouse gases. Section 17 requires that the division make publicly available the data upon which its GHG forecast is based and requires that the forecast include at least one scenario that does not include emission reductions projected to occur pursuant to existing law.

Section 19 requires the just transition office in the division of employment and training in the department of labor and employment to develop a proposed long-term budget to adequately finance the just transition plan relating to the closure of coal-fired electric generation facilities. Section 20 modifies the mission statement for the Colorado energy office, including by adding the goal of supporting Colorado's transition to a more equitable, low-carbon, and clean energy economy and promoting resources that reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, including pollution and emissions from electricity generation, buildings, industry, agriculture, and transportation.

Existing law requires electric utilities to provide best value employment metrics to the PUC when applying for approval of new resource acquisitions. Section 22 requires the state auditor to study the implementation of the best value employment metrics requirement.

To implement the act, section 23 appropriates the following:

• $2,550,218 from the general fund and the community impact cash fund to the department, of which amount $382,680 is reappropriated to the department of law to provide legal services and $239,642 is reappropriated to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology to provide information technology services; and
• $146,703 from the general fund to the office of the governor for use by the Colorado energy office.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The bill prohibits the state and any of its departments, institutions, or agencies (state) from making it a condition of employment that an employee or a prospective employee execute a contract or other form of agreement that prohibits, prevents, or otherwise restricts the employee or prospective employee from disclosing factual circumstances concerning the individual's employment with the state (nondisclosure agreement) except where the nondisclosure agreement is necessary to prevent disclosure of:

• Factual circumstances relating to the employment that reasonably implicate privacy interests held by the employee who is a party to the agreement; and
• Matters required to be kept confidential by federal law or rules or by state statute or matters bearing on the specialized details of security arrangements or investigations.

The bill prohibits nondisclosure agreements that prohibit state employees from disclosing factual circumstances concerning their employment. To the extent that an employer includes any such provision in any employment contract or agreement, the provision is deemed against public policy and unenforceable against a current or former employee who is a party to the contract or agreement except where the provision is intended to prevent disclosure of factual circumstances implicating the employee's privacy interests or matters required to be kept confidential under federal or state law or matters bearing on the specialized details of security arrangements or investigations.

The bill prohibits the state from taking any retaliatory action against an individual on the grounds that the individual does not enter into a contract or agreement deemed to be against public policy and unenforceable under the bill. Any person who enforces or attempts to enforce a provision deemed against public policy and unenforceable under the bill is liable for the employee's reasonable attorney fees and costs in defending against the action.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill creates the water resources financing enterprise (enterprise). The board of the enterprise (board) consists of the board of directors of the Colorado water resources and power development authority and the board members of the Colorado water conservation board. The enterprise will provide financing to "water providers", defined to include drinking water suppliers, wastewater treatment suppliers, and raw water suppliers. Raw water suppliers are limited to those that provide raw water for treatment and use as drinking water.

Customers of a drinking water supplier will pay a fee to the supplier, who will transmit it to the enterprise to be used for the financing. The fee for each individual metered connection in a drinking water supplier's public water system is 25 cents per 1,000 gallons of drinking water delivered per month in excess of the first 4,000 gallons of drinking water delivered in that month to the individual metered connection. The board may adjust the fee based on inflation and equity concerns for large nonresidential customers and customers who pay tiered rates that start higher than 4,000 gallons per month.

The enterprise can provide financing for grants, loans, and in-kind technical assistance in arranging third-party financing. In determining whether to provide financing, the board shall consider the following factors:

• A water provider's ability to pay, including whether the water provider has sought or received other financial assistance;
• Whether a water provider has been found to be noncompliant with requirements, or is subject to increased requirements, related to the provision of raw water, drinking water, or wastewater treatment;
• Whether the proposed use of financing relates to a project identified in and in furtherance of the state water plan; and
• The geographic location and demographic characteristics of the water provider and its customers.

The enterprise shall provide, and a water provider may use, the financing only:

• In connection with the provision of raw water, drinking water, or wastewater treatment; and
• For feasibility studies, consulting, planning, permitting, and construction of infrastructure and water conservation projects and related recreational, hydroelectric, and flood control facilities, including necessary enlargement and rehabilitation of facilities but excluding maintenance and operation of facilities.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The act directs the state treasurer to make an immediate, one-time transfer of $3 million from the general fund to the agriculture value-added cash fund to augment the department of agriculture's ongoing advancing Colorado's renewable energy and energy efficiency (ACRE 3 ) program. At least $150,000 of this money must be allocated to research, guidance, technical assistance, feasibility studies, and projects related to agrivoltaics. "Agrivoltaics" is defined as solar energy generation facilities located on land that is also used for agricultural production.
The act appropriates the $3 million from the agriculture value-added cash fund to the department of agriculture for use by the commissioner's office to make grants to implement the ACRE 3 program.
The act also appropriates $2 million from the general fund to the department of agriculture for use by the conservation services division for the purpose of administering voluntary soil health programs. Of this amount, the department is directed to expend at least $1 million in grants to conservation districts, and all of the money appropriated to the conservation services division must be expended by December 31, 2022.

The act requires the department of agriculture to periodically report on its expenditures to the office of state planning and budgeting and the general assembly.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the Colorado agricultural future loan program (loan program) in the department of agriculture (department) and requires the department to administer the loan program.

Beginning on or before January 1, 2022, and until January 1, 2025, the department may distribute money from the Colorado agricultural future loan program cash fund (fund), which is also created in the act, to financial entities to award farm-to-market infrastructure loans to eligible applicants. The department is not permitted to engage in direct lending activities.

Beginning on or before January 1, 2022, the department may award farm-to-market infrastructure grants to eligible applicants.

In administering the loan program, the department, to the extent practicable, shall attempt to award:

• A total of at least $5 million but no more than $10 million in the form of farm-to-market infrastructure loans or farm-to-market infrastructure grants by June 30, 2022; and
• A total of at least $10 million but no more than $20 million in the form of low-interest loans to eligible applicants by December 31, 2022.

In administering the loan program on and after January 1, 2023, to the extent practicable, the department shall prioritize the provision of loans to eligible farmers or ranchers who apply for loans from the loan program and who have owned or operated a farm or ranch for less than 10 years or represent a population that is underserved or underrepresented in Colorado agriculture.

The commissioner of agriculture is required to promulgate rules to implement the loan program, and the department is required to submit an annual report to the general assembly concerning the loan program.

The act requires the state treasurer to transfer $30 million from the general fund to the fund for use by the department to implement and administer the loan program. The money in the fund is continuously appropriated to the department to expend for the loan program.

For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $165,890 to the department of law, from reappropriated funds received by the department of agriculture in the fund, to provide legal services to the department of agriculture.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)