The 2019 budget includes $2.8 million in revenues. Expenditures and revenues are often not matched each calendar year because implementation and timing of project costs for the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) can vary significantly from year to year.

The Statute mandates that the Authority spend at least 60% of the annual revenues on the construction and maintenance of Pollution Abatement Projects. The remaining 40% is allocated towards monitoring, special studies, planning documents, technical reports or memoranda, and administrative costs.

Because expenditures and revenues are not matched each calendar year, the Authority interprets the 60/40 split referenced above as a multi-year mandate and does not account for this in any one year. Specific to 2018, the Authority did not spend 60% on Pollutant Abatement Projects. The 2019 budget plans on spending 76.8% on Pollution Abatement Projects. As the summary of recommended PRFs shows, over $7.7 million is allocated for PAPs in 2020-2028.

In 2018, the Authority clarified by Resolution that a “Pollution Abatement Project” is any physical structure or facility that is planned, designed, and intended to directly reduce nutrients or other pollution in Cherry Creek Reservoir and/or the Cherry Creek Watershed. It can include any created wetland, berm, swale, detention area, or stream reclamation area, as well as the acquisition of property and interest in property, and the development of any new approach, analytical tool, educational approach, or other innovative method for the purpose of treating, controlling, or reducing nutrient loading or pollution in the reservoir or watershed, including reservoir modeling.

More information on the CIP program can be found here.