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Commerce City Energy Equity & Environment division outlines Q1 sustainability work, water efforts and grant activity
Summary
Commerce City's Energy Equity & Environment (E3) Division delivered its first-quarter update covering sustainability outreach, water portfolio work, land-use reviews, partnerships on electric-vehicle readiness and grant applications including unsuccessful environmental-justice and Healthy Homes grants.
Melody Mascarenas, sustainability manager, and Libby Tart, sustainability planner, presented the Energy Equity & Environment (E3) Division first-quarter update to the Commerce City Council.
Mascarenas introduced the division's sustainability focus areas and described public outreach: a quarterly challenge program with 166 participants, staff and public events including a "Watts at Work" lunch-and-learn and EV test drives, and a LEED cohort in which two employees passed the LEED exam.
The division reported partnerships with city departments — public works, parks and rec, community relations and economic development — and with outside organizations including Xcel Energy, Drive Clean Colorado and Adams County municipalities. Mascarenas said staff helped coordinate Earth Day events and participated in the national planning conference mobile tour to showcase the city's work with the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
Tart outlined E3's technical work: the division conducted 11 land-use application reviews in Q1, issued two general service area (GSA) water allocations (ERUs), collaborated on a water 101 training for staff, and organized public outreach on a xeric demonstration garden and a residential turf-replacement pilot under a Project Accelerator technical-assistance grant. Tart said the city receives monthly oil-and-gas permit notices and Suncor exceedance reports and has participated in Suncor webinars.
On grants, E3 reported it did not receive a CDPHE environmental-justice grant it applied for, and that the Healthy Homes grant (where Commerce City was a subrecipient) was rescinded; staff said they applied to an EPA environmental-justice funding opportunity (Mountains and Plains) for a desktop soil assessment and greenhouse-gas inventory updates.
Council members asked about turf-replacement and low-water landscaping programs, electric-vehicle readiness, and whether regular meetings with Suncor and other operators are planned. Tart and Mascarenas said the Drive Clean Colorado partnership will support EV readiness work, that staff plan to meet more regularly with Suncor, and that turf-replacement pilots could include cash-for-grass or garden-in-a-box models but will need further funding.
No formal council action was taken at the presentation; staff said they will continue grant searches, complete Project Accelerator reports and return with follow-up details as grant opportunities and resources evolve.
