2018 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 25 - Public Health and Environment
Environmental Control
Article 7 - Air Quality Control
Part 1 - Air Quality Control Program
§ 25-7-114.7. Emission fees - fund - rules - definitions - repeal
(1) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) Indirect and direct costs include, but are not limited to:
(I) Reviewing and acting upon any application for such a permit;
(II) Implementing and enforcing the terms and conditions of any such permit (not including court costs or other legal costs associated with any enforcement action);
(III) Emissions and ambient monitoring;
(IV) Preparing generally applicable regulations or guidance;
(V) Modeling, analyses, and demonstrations;
(VI) Preparing inventories and tracking emissions; and
(VII) Establishing and administering a small business stationary source technical and environmental compliance program, pursuant to section 25-7-109.2.
(b) (I) "Regulated pollutant" means:
(A) A volatile organic compound;
(B) Each pollutant regulated under section 25-7-109 or section 111 of the federal act;
(C) Each pollutant regulated under section 112 (b) of the federal act;
(D) Each pollutant for which a national primary ambient air quality standard has been promulgated, except for carbon monoxide.
(II) The term "regulated pollutant", for the purpose of assessing fees, shall not include fugitive dust or any fraction thereof.
(2) (a) (I) The commission shall designate by rule those classes of sources of air pollution that are exempt from the requirement to pay an annual emission fee. Every owner or operator of an air pollution source not otherwise exempt in accordance with such commission rules shall pay an annual fee as follows:
(A) For fiscal years 2018-19 and thereafter, the maximum fee is twenty-eight dollars and sixty-three cents per ton of regulated pollutant reported in the most recent air pollution emission notice on file with the division; except that, on each January 1 from 2019 to 2028, the maximum fee is automatically adjusted based on the annual percentage change in the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, consumer price index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood for all items and all urban consumers, or its successor index. The commission shall set the actual fee by rule. Beginning on July 1, 2018, the commission, by rule, may periodically adjust the fee up to the maximum fee.
(A.5) A late payment fee. Such fee shall be assessed at the rate of one percent per month for accounts more than sixty days past due; except that no late payment fee may be assessed during a period in which an account is under administrative review by the division in order to respond to a reasonable request by the owner or operator of a source for allocation of the fees among multiple sources or to resolve a good-faith claim by the owner or operator of a source that there has been an error in calculation of the amount of fees due. At the end of the administrative review, the division shall inform the owner or operator of the source in writing of any findings.
(B) For fiscal years 2018-19 and thereafter, in addition to the annual fee set forth in subsection (2)(a)(I)(A) of this section, for hazardous air pollutants, including ozone-depleting compounds, a maximum annual fee of one hundred ninety-one dollars and thirteen cents per ton; except that, on each January 1 from 2019 to 2028, the maximum fee is automatically adjusted based on the annual percentage change in the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, consumer price index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood for all items and all urban consumers, or its successor index. The commission shall set the actual fee by rule. Beginning on July 1, 2018, the commission, by rule, may periodically adjust the fee up to the maximum fee.
(C) Every local air pollution control authority that adopts any air pollution resolution or ordinance that is more stringent than corresponding state provisions shall pay for the state's enforcement costs.
(II) In no event shall an owner or operator of a major source pay more than a fee based upon total annual emissions of four thousand tons of each regulated pollutant per source.
(III) Every owner or operator subject to the requirements to pay fees set forth in subsection (2)(a)(I) of this section shall also pay a processing fee for the costs of processing any application other than an air pollution emission notice under this article 7. Every significant user of prescribed fire, including federal facilities, submitting a planning document to the commission pursuant to section 25-7-106 (8)(b) shall pay a fee for costs of evaluating the documents. For fiscal year 2018-19, the division shall assess a fee for work it performs, up to a maximum of thirty hours at a maximum rate of ninety-five dollars and fifty-six cents per hour; except that, on each January 1 from 2019 to 2028, the maximum fee is automatically adjusted based on the annual percentage change in the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, consumer price index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood for all items and all urban consumers, or its successor index. The commission shall set the actual fee by rule. Beginning on July 1, 2018, the commission, by rule, may periodically adjust the fee up to the maximum fee. If the division requires more than thirty hours to process the application or evaluate the prescribed fire-related planning documents, the fee paid by the applicant must not exceed three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars unless the division has informed the source that the respective billings may exceed three thousand seven hundred fifty dollars and has provided the source with an estimate of what the actual charges may be prior to commencing the work.
(IV) and (V) Repealed.
(VI) Notwithstanding subparagraph (III) of this paragraph (a), the division shall not assess a fee for work performed to negotiate a voluntary agreement under part 12 of this article above a maximum of one hundred hours at a rate of fifty-nine dollars and ninety-eight cents per hour unless the owner or operator proposing the voluntary agreement consents to a greater fee in writing.
(b)
(I) The moneys collected pursuant to this section shall be remitted to the state treasurer, who shall credit the same to the stationary sources control fund, which fund is hereby created. From such fund, the general assembly shall appropriate to the department of public health and environment, at least annually, such moneys as may be necessary to cover the division's direct and indirect costs required to develop and administer the programs established pursuant to parts 1 to 4 and 10 of this article for the control of air pollution from stationary sources. Any permit fee moneys not appropriated by the general assembly and any appropriated funds not spent by the division shall remain in the stationary sources control fund and shall not revert to the general fund of the state at the end of any fiscal year. Any such moneys shall be separately accounted for. All interest earned on moneys in the stationary sources control fund shall remain in the fund and shall not revert to the general fund or to any other fund.
(II) Of the portion of fee revenue attributable to the increases enacted during the first regular session of the sixty-third general assembly, the department shall allocate one hundred fifty thousand dollars per year for the purpose of modernizing and maintaining the computer system used for the administration of the stationary source program so as to make the overall system more efficient, and seventy thousand dollars for the purpose of enhancing county and district public health agency participation in air quality control activities. The department may reallocate moneys between these two purposes as reasonably necessary so long as the total amount devoted to such purposes remains at two hundred twenty thousand dollars annually.
(c) The general assembly by bill may annually adjust the fees established in this section and in section 25-7-114.1 as necessary to cover the reasonable costs, both direct and indirect, of the stationary source program and to assure that adequate personnel and funding will be available to administer the permit program.
(d) No permit will be issued if the administrator objects to its issuance in a timely manner under this title.
(e) Repealed.
(f) Notwithstanding the amount specified for any fee in this subsection (2), the commission by rule or as otherwise provided by law may reduce the amount of one or more of the fees if necessary pursuant to section 24-75-402 (3), C.R.S., to reduce the uncommitted reserves of the fund to which all or any portion of one or more of the fees is credited. After the uncommitted reserves of the fund are sufficiently reduced, the commission by rule or as otherwise provided by law may increase the amount of one or more of the fees as provided in section 24-75-402 (4), C.R.S.
(g)
(I) The division shall prioritize its use of the revenues generated by the fee increases authorized by the general assembly in 2018 to reduce permit processing times for all categories of permits through increased efficiencies and information system improvements that are identified through the stakeholder process identified in subsection (2)(g)(II) of this section.
(II) Before September 1, 2018, the division shall convene a stakeholder group consisting of affected industries to:
(A) Identify and assess measures to improve billing practices and increase accounting transparency with respect to application processing fees, including providing more detail on the application review process and the time spent on the process; and
(B) Assess potential efficiency improvements, including associated metrics to measure the division's performance, with respect todivision activities financed by the stationary sources control fund.
(III) Beginning in 2019, the division shall present during the legislative session the results of the stakeholder process required by subsection (2)(g)(II) of this section, including improved billing practices, increased accounting transparency, implemented efficiency improvements, and efficiency metrics, to the house of representatives health, insurance, and environment committee and the senate health and human services committee, or any successor committees.
(IV) Subsections (2)(g)(II) and (2)(g)(III) of this section and this subsection (2)(g)(IV) are repealed, effective September 1, 2023.
