By Cindy McLoud

Kiowa County is having issues with the State of Colorado, or rather the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) in terms of keeping the two landfills in the county open.  Though we are dealing with most of our compliance problems, there are a couple that will eventually be very expensive, and one of those is our requirement to drill monitoring wells to make sure that we are not contaminating our ground water.  CDPHE is requesting of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) to appropriate funds to cover this cost for about 20 such landfills throughout the state that are in the same situation that Kiowa County is.  Many people have offered to write letters and emails to whoever can provide us the most help in keeping our landfills open. Colorado Counties Inc. states that letters and emails of support for state funds to drill monitoring wells for small landfills in the State of Colorado should be written to members of the Joint Budget Committee. That information can be found on https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/joint-budget-committee/2017-regular-session. Also write Senator Larry Crowder and Representative Kimmi Lewis for their support if this request makes it past committee. Their contact information can be found on http://leg.colorado.gov/legislators.