Englewood officials say water system now in regulatory compliance after multi-year overhaul

Englewood officials told the City Council on Feb. 3 that the city’s water and sewer utilities are now meeting regulatory requirements after several years of work to fix past compliance failures.

The presentation by Director Peter Van Ryan and a subsequent state overview from Nicole Rowan of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) summarized infrastructure upgrades, staffing and process changes that officials say resolved multiple monitoring and reporting gaps that led to public notices and a 2021 boil-water order.

The overview matters because the water system serves more than the city’s resident population: officials said the system’s service population exceeds 50,000 when counting daytime and commuter populations, which triggers additional regulatory obligations. “We’re in compliance with all of our regulatory requirements,” Director Peter Van Ryan told council during the presentation.

The city described several specific fixes and ongoing efforts that changed its compliance profile. Among them: replacing house-based sampling with dedicated sample stations at meter points to avoid monitoring errors traced to private plumbing; hiring an environmental compliance team; formalizing a compliance dashboard and records system to replace paper files; completing required “raw” (Record of Approved Water Works) and disinfection reviews with the state; and instituting regular inspections of storage tanks and dams associated with the water system.

CDPHE Director Nicole Rowan said the state has accepted the city’s work. “Englewood currently has no water quality or treatment technique violations,” Rowan told council, praising installation of sampling stations and investments in online chlorine monitoring. She said CDPHE is partnering with the city on a PFAS treatment pilot funded in part by a grant.

Lead service lines and PFAS: officials said the city has taken an aggressive approach to lead and copper rules rather than waiting for regulatory deadlines. As of Jan. 17, Van Ryan reported 502 lead-service-line replacements complete and said the program aims to verify and pothole every service line for homes built before 1960; the program’s total scope was described as an estimated mid‑2,000s replacements. Van Ryan said that by removing lead service lines the utility can avoid a larger, system‑wide orthophosphate treatment program and instead rely on pH control as the primary corrosion-control strategy.

The city described a $426,000 grant for PFAS work that funds both a source‑water assessment and a treatment pilot at the Allen treatment plant. While finished water currently meets federal maximum contaminant levels, officials said some measured PFAS exceed the EPA’s health advisory level, prompting the pilot. Rowan said Colorado has been proactive on PFAS and praised Englewood’s transparency and pilot work.

Backflow and paperwork: the city acknowledged a recent Tier 3 violation — a paperwork‑level finding tied to how extensions for backflow device compliance were administered. Van Ryan described a rapid overhaul of backflow records and testing: the city moved a multiyear implementation schedule into a nine‑month completion for many sites, inventoryed thousands of devices and verified more than 1,400 commercial and multifamily connections. Van Ryan said staff had identified roughly 458 unprotected cross‑connections and were continuing removal and customer education efforts. He told council the paperwork issue will be included in the city’s Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) scheduled for distribution in May/June.

Operational details and monitoring: staff said the city is expanding its dedicated sampling stations (33 installed, 66 more ordered for a total of 99 when complete) so samples come from the meter point rather than household taps; installing online chlorine analyzers; and adding level sensors and structural assessments on the two overhead storage tanks. The utility also conducts regular inspections of its dams — including McClellan Reservoir and the Meadow Creek facility — under state engineer oversight.

Funding and scale: Van Ryan said the lead‑service-line program was once estimated at $40 million–$80 million and that federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds and other sources have materially changed the city’s ability to proceed. He said the city’s program is funded so far and proceeding at pace.

What remains: staff and CDPHE emphasized ongoing monitoring, public communication, and the PFAS pilot as next steps. Council members pressed on messaging and resident confidence after public notices; Van Ryan and Rowan said they will work on clarifying language for notices while complying with federal public‑notification requirements.

Council Q&A and community details: council members asked about the frequency and tone of regulatory notices, accessibility of PFAS education resources, how potholing and service‑line verification will be prioritized for properties that have been rebuilt or remodeled, and why trees are removed near dams (safety and root‑seepage concerns). Van Ryan said the sanitary survey led to three plant findings that were corrected immediately and that the backlog of paperwork and system records has been the largest programmatic issue the utility has had to fix.

The update closed with county and state staff present to answer technical questions; officials directed residents with billing or individual service concerns to utilities staff for case follow‑up.